Roscoe Turner and the lion that flew the National Air Races

Roscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy three times — a feat no other pilot ever matched — while flying with a lion cub in the cockpit and wearing a custom powder-blue uniform with a waxed handlebar mustache. He was the most colorful and most talented racing pilot of aviation’s golden age, and his story is one of spectacle, precision, and raw nerve.

Who Was Roscoe Turner?

Roscoe Turner was born in 1903 in Corinth, Mississippi, into a family of modest means. He got his first exposure to flying in the Army but never completed military flight training — he washed out. That setback barely registered. He taught himself to fly, barnstormed across the South, and flew anything with wings.

What set Turner apart from other early aviators was his instinct for self-promotion. He designed a custom-tailored powder-blue uniform with polished boots and more gold braid than a South American generalissimo. He cultivated a perfectly waxed handlebar mustache. He looked like a Hollywood casting director’s dream, and that was entirely deliberate.

Turner understood that speed alone wouldn’t pay the bills. A racing pilot needed sponsors, press coverage, and name recognition. Nobody played that game better.

Why Did Roscoe Turner Fly With a Lion?

In 1930, Turner acquired an African lion cub and named him Gilmore, after his primary sponsor, the Gilmore Oil Company, which already used a lion as its corporate mascot. Turner decided the logical next step was to fly with a real lion in the cockpit.

This was not just a ground-level publicity stunt. Turner actually flew with Gilmore for thousands of miles. The lion had a custom harness and a specially made parachute, and he rode in the front cockpit of Turner’s open biplane with his ears flattened back in the wind.

Newspapers across America ran photographs of the immaculately dressed pilot and his lion cub climbing out of a biplane. It was the most brilliant piece of aviation marketing anyone had ever seen. Gilmore eventually grew too large to fly — a full-sized African lion changes weight and balance calculations dramatically — and was retired to the Indianapolis Zoo, where Turner visited him regularly.

What Were the Cleveland National Air Races?

The Cleveland Air Races were the biggest sporting spectacle in America during the 1930s. More than 100,000 spectators packed the grandstands, and the races made front-page news coast to coast.

The main event was the Thompson Trophy Race, a closed-course pylon race around a roughly ten-mile circuit. Pilots flew at altitudes so low they clipped the tops of corn stalks, banking around pylons at over 300 miles per hour in hand-built aircraft that were essentially missiles with tiny wings.

The Thompson Trophy was extraordinarily dangerous. It killed some of the best pilots of the era. Crashes happened in full view of the grandstands, the result of experimental aircraft pushed far beyond any reasonable engineering margin by pilots who believed they were invincible.

How Did Roscoe Turner Win Three Thompson Trophies?

First win — 1933: Turner flew a Wedell-Williams racer, one of the small, sleek monoplanes built by engineer Jimmy Wedell in Patterson, Louisiana. These aircraft had enormous engines, impossibly tight cockpits, and almost no forward visibility over the long engine cowling. Turner averaged 241 miles per hour around the course — at a time when airliners were cruising at 110. He pulled five and six Gs around the pylons, fifty feet off the ground.

Second win — 1938, and third win — 1939: For his final two victories, Turner flew the Turner-Laird Special, a low-wing monoplane he helped design. It was powered by a Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engine producing 1,000 horsepower, painted cream and red, and brutally fast.

In the 1939 Thompson, Turner averaged 282 miles per hour. Judges remarked they had never seen anyone fly a tighter course. He was not just fast — he was surgical. Every bank, every turn, every straightaway was calculated to shave seconds without wasting an inch of airspace.

Turner also won the Bendix Trophy in 1933, a cross-country speed dash from Burbank, California, to Cleveland, flown nonstop with no autopilot, no GPS — just a compass, charts, and endurance.

What Made Turner Different From Other Racing Pilots?

Behind the showmanship, Turner was a meticulous tactician. He studied the course. He planned fuel loads down to the last gallon. He tested engine temperatures obsessively. He was calculated where others were reckless.

A younger pilot once approached Turner before a race at Cleveland and asked what the secret was. Turner’s answer became legendary: “You fly the course, son. Not the other airplanes. You fly the course.”

That distinction — between reacting to competitors and executing a precise plan — separated Turner from pilots who were equally brave but far less disciplined.

What Happened After the Air Races Ended?

The Cleveland Air Races were suspended after the 1939 season due to the approaching war. They returned briefly after World War II but never recaptured their former intensity. Aircraft had gotten too fast, courses too dangerous, and public appetite had shifted.

Turner retired as the winningest pilot in Thompson Trophy history. He settled in Indianapolis and founded the Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corporation, which became a respected flight school and fixed-base operation. He trained military pilots during World War II and became an elder statesman of aviation, appearing at airshows still wearing the uniform and the mustache.

Roscoe Turner died in 1970 in Indianapolis at age 67. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1975.

Key Takeaways

Roscoe Turner won three Thompson Trophies — more than any other pilot — racing at speeds up to 282 mph in hand-built aircraft just fifty feet off the ground.
He flew thousands of miles with an African lion cub named Gilmore in the cockpit, complete with a custom harness and parachute, creating one of aviation’s greatest marketing coups.
Behind the showmanship was a disciplined tactician who studied courses, obsessed over fuel loads and engine temperatures, and flew with surgical precision.
His racing philosophy — “fly the course, not the other airplanes” — remains one of the most enduring pieces of competitive wisdom in aviation.
Turner proved that excellence and personality are not mutually exclusive, blazing a trail for every airshow performer and aviation personality who followed.

Sources: Dan Pisano’s research at the National Air and Space Museum; Bill Rhode, Baling Wire, Chewing Gum, and Guts.