The Air Race Classic (ARC) is an annual all-woman cross-country air race, a tradition stemming from the 1929 Women's Air Derby, featuring pilots like Amelia Earhart.
Teams of at least two women pilots, ranging from students to professionals, compete over a multi-day, multi-state course, with winners determined by skill and beating an aircraft-specific handicap, not pure speed.
The 2025 ARC involved 64 teams flying 2,426 miles over four days from Fairhope, Alabama, to Spokane, Washington, with top finishers announced for both Competition and Intercollegiate classes.
The all-woman race traces its roots back to the 1929 Women’s Air Derby when a handful of notable aviatrixes of the time, including Amelia Earhart, Bobby Trout, Louise Thaden, and Pancho Barnes, took off from Clover Field in Santa Monica, California, heading for Cleveland. These women flew solo in single-engine aircraft.
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Zach Vasile is a writer and editor covering news in all aspects of aviation. He has reported for and contributed to the Manchester Journal Inquirer, the Hartford Business Journal, the Charlotte Observer, and the Washington Examiner, with his area of focus being the intersection of business and government policy.
