On August 30, 1947, Hollywood stunt pilot and air-racing innovator Paul Mantz won the Bendix Trophy for the second consecutive year, flying his modified North American P-51C Mustang from the Los Angeles area to Cleveland, Ohio. Mantz completed the transcontinental run in 4 hours, 26 minutes, and 57.4 seconds—an average speed of 460.423 mph—and earned the race’s $10,000 first prize.
Mantz flew a former military Mustang registered NX1202 and named Blaze of Noon, after the Paramount aviation drama with which it was associated. Its crucial racing alteration was not simply cosmetic promotion: Mantz had the wings converted into integral, sealed fuel tanks, a “wet-wing” arrangement that gave the aircraft the fuel capacity to make the course nonstop. That eliminated refueling delays while retaining the P-51’s formidable high-speed performance. Smithsonian records identify the aircraft as a P-51C and note that Mantz used it to win both the 1946 and 1947 Bendix races, as well as to establish 1947 coast-to-coast speed records.
The victory capped Mantz’s transformation from a controversial young military cadet into one of the best-known pilots in American aviation. After leaving the Army Air Corps, he built a major career in film flying, military pilot instruction, and aerial-cinematography work. In the postwar Bendix races, he turned combat-proven aircraft into symbols of speed, technical ingenuity, and popular aviation culture. Mantz returned to win the Bendix again in 1948, using another P-51 Mustang. His 1946–48 streak remains unique: he was the only pilot to capture the Bendix Trophy in three consecutive years. The 1947 flight stands as a defining postwar aviation feat—one in which a wartime fighter, re-engineered for range and dressed in Hollywood identity, became a record-setting civilian racing machine.
Image c. 1935 captures legendary stunt pilot Paul Mantz with biplane. (Image from the Los Angeles Times via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0).
