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 an equal shambles 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whilst taxying to the start and the second and third were withdrawn when their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.
Gloster III
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.
 
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