1931

1931 Schneider Cup Course

The 1931 contest was scheduled for 12 September over a triangular circuit above the Solent and Spithead, off the Isle of Wight. Heavy rain and poor visibility postponed the flight for a day; Flight Lieutenant John N. Boothman completed it on 13 September. Contemporary reporting describes a 50-kilometre circuit flown seven times anticlockwise: 350 kilometres in all, usually rendered as 217.48 statute miles (about 217.5 miles). The map is a modern approximate reconstruction on a satellite-style background, not a survey of the 1931 pylon positions. Nature’s 19 September 1931 report confirms the triangle, Solent/Spithead location and total distance; a contemporary announcement reproduced in the North Otago Times specifies the 50 km circuit and seven anticlockwise laps.

Route and landmarks. The course lay across the eastern Solent between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The start/finish was off Ryde. Contemporary eyewitness coverage describes Boothman rounding St Helen’s Point, then West Wittering, before turning again at Browndown Anchorage and returning across the Solent. Those place names support the broad triangular reconstruction shown on the map; the exact historic positions of the start line and turning pylons are not established by the sources consulted. Treat the illustrated points and straight connecting legs as approximate. The October 1931 account in The Motor Sport gives the landmarks and describes the flying turns.

Start and course procedure. The 1931 course was not the quadrilateral flown in 1929: the Royal Aero Club announced a triangular route. Before the timed course, the aircraft had to demonstrate seaworthiness by taking off, climbing, landing, and taxiing on the water; Boothman completed that trial before crossing the start line. The timed flight was then seven circuits. The 1931 report does not provide a surveyed list of pylon coordinates or reliable leg-by-leg distances, so none are asserted here. The contemporary race report describes Boothman’s seaworthiness trial and the route landmarks.

Distance and uncertainty. Seven 50 km laps equal 350 km; period and later references round the statute-mile equivalent to 217.5 miles, while 217.48 miles is the more precise conversion. A few sources call the 50 km figure “just over 31 miles” or round the lap to 32 miles; those are approximate descriptions, not evidence of a different official distance. The U.S. Air Service’s historical account gives seven 50 km laps and 217.48 land miles. A 1931 Nature article calls this the “eleventh contest,” but that ordinal conflicts with the accepted sequence of twelve contests from 1913 through 1931; its course and race facts remain useful, while the ordinal appears erroneous.