The first winners were U.S. Army Lieutenant Frank Lahm and Henry Hersey of the USA and under the rules established by Bennett for his balloon race, the winning team’s home country was afforded the honor of holding the next year’s event. Therefore, in 1907, the race came to the United States for the first time and was held in St. Louis, MO. The victory of the genevan competitors, Louis Ansermier et Paul Armbruster, at the 1921 Gordon Bennett (Brussels) brought the race to Geneva in 1922.
Now, the Gordon Bennett returns to Geneva for the 3rd time and will be held at the Vessy Sports Centre, a great festival of hot-air balloons with captive flights and other entertainments for young and old alike.
More information : www.pionnair-ge.com 
|
|
The Gordon Bennett race was created in 1906 by James Gordon Bennett, an American Press baron and adventurer, to stimulate technical development in aeronautics. Bennett (who lived in France) charged the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), with running the event and the first time it was held, sixteen competing balloons took off from the historic Tuileries Gardens in the center of Paris… a distinctively French flair, even the official name « Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett » !
