About This Image

A group of four photographs showing a horse drawn wagon carrying the deflated packed balloon or related equipment with group of unidentified men standing around it, and three successive shots from ground to sky of the balloon ascension.

The two men standing in center of the wagon photograph may be Ralph Hazlett Upson (1888-1968), Goodyear engineer in the Aeronautics Division of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (wearing bow tie), and Ralph Albion Drury Preston (standing to left of Upson). They were the Goodyear balloon pilots, who on July 2, 1913, won the International Balloon Race, flying 652 miles from Kansas City and landing in West Branch, MI. This elimination race began with 10 balloons and all encountered storms in the vicinity of the Great Lakes.

The photograph of the balloon on the ground has the title and date typed on the verso.

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