The Great Air Race of 1919 Part 3

Part 3 of a 3 part Series

A group of young boys are swept up in the excitement that swirled around the frantic preparations for the Greatest Air Race of them all. Ike is a boy born and raised on the wrong side of town, suddenly thrust into manhood by the untimely death of his father. He finds a distraction from his pain when he and his young friends assume a pivotal roll in history by supporting the competing race air teams.



Our story begins where it left off in part 2.



Eric our hero was soon to turn fourteen. A few short months earlier he he was forced to quit school, take a job in order to help his family after his father who, died suddenly of the deadly Spanish flu. Since Eric thought that his name was more suited to that of a boy he asked of all around him, that he be referred to as Ike.

Ike and his friends developed in intense interest in the air race that was shaping up in their town. They had visited the centers and bases of the ``birdmen``, as the local population called new airplane visitors from away. Ike had been to Glendenning farm at Mount Pearl and met the members of the Sopwith Atlantic team, as well as their pilot Harry Hawker and his navigator Mac Grives. They had witnessed the arrival the massive Curtiss NC Flying Boats of the Americans at Trepassey; greeted the arrival Raynham and Morgan`s big Rolls Rice powered Martinsyde biplane and; the gigantic Handley-Page V/1500 four engine Berlin bomber of Admiral Kerr.

They were there trying their best to prevent the inevitable disaster with the giant American ``ace in the hole`` entry, the C 5 airship of Commander Richard Byrd at Pleasentville in Quidi Vidi. They waited patiently for news of the missing Sopwith which disappeared somewhere in the stormy North Atlantic with Harry Hawker and Mac Grieves on board. They watched in horror as the Rolls-Martinsyde Atlantic crashed on takeoff

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