Once upon a time, before we all hated getting on the plane to go somewhere we didn’t really want to go to, there was a glamour and fascination associated with all things aeronautical. Between the wars–1918 to 1940 roughly–this was epitomized by the advent of air races. Competitions were held all over the world to see who could break speed records, to say nothing of altitude and endurance records. The goal was to encourage the relatively new art of aviation reach its ultimate goal of making the world a more accessible place, one we could all travel freely, quickly and comfortably within, thus greatly enhancing our life experience. (It worked. And now we all hate it). Anyway, the above doc gives us a wonderful glimpse into the world of the air racers of that era, a colorful bunch of bad-ass daredevils who seemingly knew no fear and loved nothing more in life than their planes and the speed at which they could travel. One of them was a man named Steve Wittman who, although almost blind in one eye, became one of the true legends of the air racing world. He even had an airport named after him–Wittman Regional in Oshkosh. That’s where I’ll be landing tomorrow at noon, as I head to the AirVenture 2026 Convention. I think you’ll dig the doc–it may even move you from complete disdain for all things aviation/history related to a wary but intrigued lurker into this fascinating, incredibly stylish and sadly vanished world.