September 1962 Flying Magazine

Ask any Air Race Classic pilot why she races, and she'll talk about the excitement, the challenge and the thrill. It was so for the racers in the very first Women's Air Derby, back in 1929, and it was so in 1962, when the pilots of that year's All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race — aka the Powder Puff Derby, the ARC's immediate predecessor — were spotlighted in a multi-page advertising spread in Flying magazine. The ads, from Champion Spark Plug Company and AC Aircraft Spark Plugs, celebrated the racers' adventurous spirit (and the aircraft spark plugs that helped get them across the finish line). In 1962, air racing for women was a unique symbol of tenacity, courage and the drive to win. So it is still today.