A.P. Warner In Flight At IMS

In the wake of the collapse of the planned aviation show at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the autumn of 1909 track management worked hard to remain relevant where they saw a market opportunity - the burgeoning field of aviation.
 
Among their many construction projects during the massive undertaking of paving the 2.5-mile oval with 3.2 million bricks was the construction of a second aerodrome. Speedway Contests Director Ernie Moross regularly courted American aviation superstar Glenn Curtiss as part of his effort to attract the 1910 International Aviation Show featuring the James Gordon Bennett Cup for airplanes.
 
Two of the strategies to establish the Speedway as the capital of American aviation was to offer free storage and workshop facilities for pioneering airplane manufacturers as well as pilot training schools. In this image we see industrialist Arthur Pratt Warner flying his Curtiss airplane, one of the crafts expected to be used in pilot training. The Indianapolis Star also published this photo, but earlier in October. The news trigger for this publication in the December 18, 1909, Indianapolis News was the time trials event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which Warner attended because his electric timing device was recording official times.