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The 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet – An American First
by
Kenneth Pauley
America’s first international air meet was held January 10-20, 1910, in Los Angeles on a mesa called Dominguez Hill, situated 13.5 miles south of the plaza at the pueblo of Los Angeles. Enthusiasm for aviation grew after the first international air meet in 1909 in Rheims, France, where American aviator Glenn H. Curtiss won three prestigious speed prizes, 36,000 francs ($6,940) and the very prized Gordon Bennett silver Cup.
An even more spectacular air meet, which would also invigorate the local economy, was being promoted for in Los Angeles. Businessman and boxing promoter, Dick Ferris, the Los Angeles Merchants and Manufactures Association (LAMMA) and the Los Angeles Examiner collaborated to make it possible. It would become the world’s second and America’s first international air meet by inviting France’s rising aviation celebrity, Louis Paulhan, which he accepted—for a price Ugarte—for a price...
Topics include: Site selection and preparation, the course, aviator and aeronaut attendees and their aeroplanes, dirigibles and balloons. Daily Program schedule and results of all 10 Events, Records and Prize winners. And, a last treat will be a video transfer from actual motion picture newsreels made at the 1910 Dominguez Air Meet (includes old piano accompaniment).
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