Challenge International de Tourisme 1929 - Rally Over Europe

Rally Over Europe

The second part of the contest was a 5942 km rally over Europe, on a path: Paris - Basil - Genova - Lyon - Marseille - Saint Raphael - Turin - Milan - Venice - Zagreb - Belgrad - Bucharest - Turnu Severin - Budapest - Vienna - Brno -Prague - Wrocław (Breslau) - Warsaw - Poznań - Berlin - Hamburg - Amsterdam - Brussels - Paris. Main waypoints were: Belgrad, Warsaw and Paris. It was not a mere rally, but rather a trial of aircraft capability on such a long path. Important factors were: keeping a good cruise speed, a regularity of flight (covering at least 1 stage daily and spending nights at appointed airfields), and lack of major repairs. Maximum number of points to obtain in a rally was 119 (70 for a cruise speed, 35 for regularity, 14 for reliability).

The rally started on August 7, 9 am, from Orly airfield in Paris. Two crews dropped out during start, including the Czech Josef Novak, flying Aero A.34 whose engine failed and the plane turned over during accident landing. Despite a maximum speed was not important, but most crews tried to make their best, and a group of 9 fastest crews reached Belgrad just on August 8 at noon. Among them were: Hubert Broad, Winifred Spooner, František Klepš (Avia BH-11), Johannes Nehring (D-18), Raymond Delmotte (Caudron C.191) and John Carberry (RK-25). This group was at the lead also on next airfields. Other groups were five Geman crews, with Fritz Morzik (BFW M.23b), and two groups of Italians; most other crews flew separately. Some crews dropped out on the way, mostly due to faults and accident landings.

On August 9, starting from 9 am, most crews took off from Belgrad, only some crews have not reached it yet. On August 11 the leading group took off from Brno and reached Warsaw. Flying to Poznań, Johannes Nehring had to land accidentally and damaged his Darmstadt D-18, being one of contest's fastest machines. Some other crews dropped out as well.

Since competitors were not allowed to land in Paris before August 14 at 3 pm, the leading group took off from Brussels and flew over Orly airfield minutes before 3 pm. Few minutes later, just as the jury started work, 19 aircraft landed in Paris. The first touched the ground the Italian Batista Botalla flying Fiat AS.1. On that day, 4 more crews arrived. On August 15, 3 crews finished, and on the next day the remaining ones. Only 31 crews out of 47 finished the rally.

Only two crews reached maximum 119 pts for the rally: the German Fritz Morzik (BFW M.23b) and the Canadian John Carberry (RK-25). The next score was 109 pts of Hubert Broad (DH-60G). Good results, 99-104 pts were obtained by 5 Italian crews, flying in group. Winners of technical trials gained less points for the race, taking further positions (Robert Lusser - 97.75 pts, František Klepš - 94 pts, Hans Wirth - 81.75 pts).