Between the years 1903 when the Wright brothers took to the skies at Kitty Hawk and 1909 aviation advanced gradually, but nothing encourages progress so much as competition, preferably for a prize. It was in the Spring of 1909 that the first aviation meetings and races were held in locations in France which paved the way for the First International Air Race at Reims in August.
Virtually everyone in the aviation business turned up and the event fired off a series of meetings mostly held around Europe and in the USA where pilots would compete on laps of the airfields- each attempting to fly further, higher, and faster than before. Finally, by 1911, Flying Machines had the range for races of hundreds of miles between cities, across countries and crossing the sea. The era of the Great Air Races had arrived.
The Great Air Races is an expansion to the game Magnificent Flying Machines which adds in varied terrain, new weather conditions, pilots and equipment and a series of race cards that recreate the courses and races in early Aviation history.
—description from the publisher