The Roaring 20s

The 1920 contest in Venice was something of a non-event. Economic difficulties in France and Great Britain meant that no entries were forthcoming from these nations and so the Italians were left to fight between themselves. The following year's race was equally shambollic as the lone French entrant experienced problems with its floats and could not participate leaving the Italians to reclaim the title unopposed. Now, under the rules of the competition, if Italy was to win the following race it would claim the trophy outright.

The 1922 race was moved to Naples and this time the Italians did have opposition in the form of a government-funded French team and a British team financed by privateer Hubert Scott-Paine. In the spirit of true competitiveness, none of the teams revealed their aircraft's true capabilities before the day of the race, 12 August, flying well below maximum performance or taking the turns very cautiously. The race itself was full of incident as the Italians bunched together and attempted to prevent Britain's Henri Biard in a Sea Lion II from passing them. To counter this, Biard simply opened the throttle to full and flew over the top of his opponents before slowing down to preserve his engine. As the race neared its completion, the closest Italian aircraft, a Savoia S51, which had previously capsized prior to the race and been recovered, encountered problems when the laminating holding the engine on to the aircraft became separated due to its dunking and was forced to retire. This left Biard to win for Britain and keep the contest alive.

The Royal Aero Club chose Cowes on the Isle of Wight as venue for 1923 race and the British, French and Italians were joined by the Americans, flying, for the first time, American-built aircraft - the Curtiss CR3 and Wright NW2 racers. Problems with a second British aircraft, the Blackburn Pellet, meant that the team was reduced to a single aircraft, the Sea Lion III again piloted by Henri Biard. The French again suffered appalling luck - one aircraft struck a yacht whilst taxying to the start and the second and third were withdrawn when their engines failed. Biard tried valiantly to catch the sleek, American machines but the race was comfortably won by Lt David Rittenhouse in a Curtiss CR3 at an average speed of 177.374 mph (285.44 km/h).

No sooner had the Americans won the Schneider Trophy for the first time than preparations for the 1924 race began with Curtiss and Wright working on new designs for the race. France announced its withdrawal and the Italians followed after abandoning its only suitable project due to a lack of engine. The British team also withdrew when the one of the two aircraft ordered for the contest, the Gloster II, crashed during trials and the second was not completed in time. In a true act of sportsmanship, the Americans declined the opportunity to claim the victory by carrying out a fly-over and postponed the event.

The build up for the 1925 race in Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore was marred by an accident to one of one of the great racers - Henri Biard. Having broken his hand on the voyage across the Atlantic, Biard then caught flu. Having decided to take his aircraft, a Supermarine S4, up for a test flight, Biard lost control of the aircraft and stalled. Luckily he was pulled from he wreckage but the cause of the mishap was never discovered. A further accident to one of the remaining British entrants, a Gloster IIIA, left Hubert Broad in the sole surviving Gloster IIIA and the Italians to battle the American team led by a then little-known US Army test pilot called James Doolittle for the trophy. Doolittle flew perfectly to beat Broad and the Italian entry comfortably and the US team retained the cup for a further year.

The 1926 race meant that another win for the Americans would see them win the Trophy outright. The British, wishing to develop very advanced racers from Supermarine and Gloster to beat the hosts, asked for the next race to be delayed until 1927 to allow them time to build their aircraft, but this was politely refused. It was a very different story in Italy. The new Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, promised that all the financial and material assistance required by Macchi and Fiat to enable them to produce an aircraft capable of beating the Americans would be provided. The hosts entered and updated version of the RC3 and a new Curtiss design, the F6C-3 Hawk with the US Navy providing the pilots. The race itself saw some very exciting flying with the two teams racing neck-and-neck to the finish with the Italians finally coming out on top to win and bring the Trophy back across the Atlantic.