Pylons Past: Offering Personal Retrospective on History and Future of Reno Air Races

After 59 years of tradition in Nevada, just how the move to Roswell will turn out is an open discussion.

Tom Wilson

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Scene from the Reno Air Races in Nevada [Reno Air Racing Association/Susan Koppel]

Key Takeaways:

The Reno Air Races, established in 1964, developed a legendary "Unlimited" class that showcased highly modified WWII fighter planes, fostering decades of intense competition and innovation.
Despite its popularity, the Unlimited class faced challenges from escalating costs, dwindling warbird availability, urban development, and a fatal crash, ultimately leading to the end of the races at the Reno venue.
A new era for the National Championship Air Races begins in 2025 with a move to Roswell, New Mexico, driven by modern classes like the "Sport" class and a focus on adapting the sport for a broader audience.

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Unlimited. Now there’s a word for you. What unfettered freedom it connotes, such exuberance for the future, an almost naive sense of limitless possibilities.

When I first came across unlimited in an aviation context. The editors of FLYING had published an annual titled Air Racing Aerobatics, with “racing” and “aerobatics” differentiated by different colors. It cost $1.95, a sobering $16.04 today, and was a thick 132 pages of tightly written personality profiles and technical features. Not incidentally, longtime FLYING contributor Peter Garrison expertly wrote many of these, and he’s still here in this issue.