![[Last year's Air Race Classic crews and organizers altogether before the race. (Photo provided: Air Race Classic)]](/sites/default/files/images/newsroom/2023-24/Air%20Race%20Classic-pre%20event-featured.jpg)
Two Purdue students, Reyna Dodd and Morgan Mallow, took to the skies from June 18 to 21, 2024, in the 47th Air Race Classic (ARC), the oldest airplane race of its kind in the United States. They were two of more than 100 women pilots from across the country and around the world flying in this year's race, which begins in Carbondale, Illinois and ends in Loveland, Colorado.
This historic contest traces its roots to the 1929 Women's Air Derby, aka the Powder Puff Derby, in which Amelia Earhart and 19 other female pilots raced from Santa Monica, CA, to Cleveland, OH. That competition marked the beginning of women's air racing in the United States.
Today, the ARC is the epicenter of women's air racing, the ultimate test of piloting skill and aviation decision-making for female pilots of all ages and from all walks of life.
Last year, Purdue’s ARC team (also featuring Mallow as a co-pilot) scored a top ten spot overall, well within the top percentile given the overall number of teams. As they returned in 2024, Dodd and Mallow improved on their standings in ARC's 93rd year. They scored third in the new "Intercollegiate" racing category, designating a specific place for up-and-coming women in ARC. There were a total of 22 intercollegiate teams.
The Boiler Up, Hangar Down pilots also made a massive improvement in their overall score from last year (from -7.009 to -0.336), which calculates the time it took to complete the race, with points added or docked for handicaps and penalties respectively.
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