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Gordon Bennett Cup In Ballooning The Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is the world's oldest and most respected gas balloon race first run on September 30, 1906 in Paris, France. The event was sponsored by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the millionaire sportsman and owner of the New York Herald newspaper. Inaugurated at a time when powered air flight was in its infancy, Bennett wanted to encourage the technical development in this field and in 1909 created a special competition open to powered flying machines. The winner of the first ballooning event was American, Frank P. Lahm who, along with his balloon co-pilot flew just over 400 miles to the northeast coast of England. In 1907, St. Louis, Missouri was host to the first ever Gordon Bennett Cup race to be held in the United States. In 1908, the Swiss winners set a world duration record of 73 hours aloft, a standard that would not be broken until 1995. In 1910, the winning balloon flew 1,887 kilometres from St. Louis, to northern Quebec in Canada. It took the two pilots, Alan R Hawley and August Post, four days to walk back to civilization. After being interrupted by World War I, the race was held every year until the outbreak of the Second World War. It was not revived until 1982 when the International Aeronautical Federation reinstated the popular race with the winning country usually hosting the following year's competition.
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