Maloney receives
prestigious air racing award
By Barbara A. Schmitz
Ed Maloney couldn’t
stand by watching combat airplanes become nothing more than scrap metal
after World War II. So he did the only imaginable thing.
He began an airplane
museum so future generations could admire the historic planes that play
an important part in aviation history.
Tonight, his efforts will
be recognized when the Society of Air Racing Historians Inc. and the
Thomas W. Wathen Foundation present Maloney with the Clifford Henderson
Award for the preservation of air racing history. The presentation will
be held about 7:30 p.m. in Theater in the Woods.
Henderson, who founded
the Cleveland National Air Races, which ran from 1929 to 1949, began the
award in 1991. Henderson was also one of the most prominent producers of
air shows in the United States.
Maloney said it was a
"complete surprise" to learn he was receiving the award. And
it’s a special honor, he said, since he knew and admired Henderson and
what he did.
"Air racing was
really a big thing in those days," Maloney said. "The 1930s
was really the golden age of aviation. Backyard pilots built many
airplanes that did some remarkable things."
In fact, many of the air
racers contributed to the effort to destroy Germany during WWII, he
said, since many of the pilots worked for the big airplane manufacturers
and made huge contributions to airplane design.
Maloney began what is now
known as the Planes of Fame Museum in 1957 at a time "when no one
else was saving airplanes." It was the first air museum west of the
Rocky Mountains and is now the oldest privately operated air museum in
the world.
Starting with about 12
World War I and World War II aircraft saved from the scrap pile, the
collection today numbers more than 150 aircraft—including about 20 air
racers—at two locations—the main facility at Chino Airport in
California and a satellite museum near the Grand Canyon at Valle Airport
in Arizona.
His goal today is the
same as when he started—to preserve at least one example of every type
of aircraft made.
The Planes of Fame Museum
has many actual or replica racers, including some of the most
significant planes of that era. That includes four Schneider Cup racers,
as well as the Curtiss R3C-2—the same plane that Jimmy Doolittle won
the Schneider Cup race in 1925 with an average air speed of 232 mph—the
Supermarine S6B, a Formula 1 racer and the Gee Bee R-1 racer, the latter
which Maloney describes as a "a milk bottle with wings."
Coincidentally, Doolittle took the Thompson Trophy Race at Cleveland in
the Gee Bee R-1.
The Henderson Award isn’t
the first for Maloney. He was also inducted into the EAA Warbirds of
America Hall of Fame in 2001.
Past winners
1991 — Bill Turner,
replica racers, homebuilder
1992 — Wes Schmid &
Truman "Pappy" Weaver, authors of Golden
Age of Air Racing
1993 — Jim Younkin,
replica racers Mr. Mulligan, Travel Air Mystery
Ship
1994 — John Underwood,
author and historian
1995 — Delmar Benjamin,
replica racer, Gee Bee R-2
1996 — Ed Marquart,
replica racer builder
1997 — Susan
Dusenbury, pilot of historic racer (Thaden Travel Air)
1998 — Bob Hirsch, author
and graphic artist
1999 — Don Berliner,
author and founder of the Society of Air Racing Historians Inc.
2000 — Tom Wathen,
owner of historic and replica race aircraft
2001 — Kermit Weeks,
owner and pilot of historic and replica race aircraft
2002 — Tony Ambrose,
historian, Society of Air Racing Historians Inc.
2005 — Robert Odegaard,
owner, rebuilder, and pilot of historic race plane (F2G Super
Corsair)
2006 — Ed Maloney, founder of Planes of
Fame Museum and author and historian
