A century after some of America’s earliest aviation pioneers competed for the Pulitzer Trophy, the historic air race returned in 2025 with a new technological challenge: electric flight.

Representing the Monterey Bay region was DART Advisor and local aerospace engineer, flight test pilot, and motorsports competitor Art Siordia, who competed in the centennial revival of the Pulitzer Trophy Air Race in Springfield, Ohio. DART was featured as title sponsor for Siordia’s aircraft, a Pipistrel Velis Electro, helping bring a distinctly Monterey Bay presence to an event celebrating both aviation history and the future of flight.

The race marked the first dedicated Pulitzer Air Race since 1925. A century after the original competition helped showcase rapidly advancing aircraft technology, the revived event turned its attention toward electric aviation and the technologies that may shape the next generation of aerospace.

The story of that revival—and the pilots, aircraft, engineers, and teams behind it—was captured in a documentary filmed throughout the event. In late August, the finished film reached another milestone with a screening at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, where Siordia and DART’s participation in the historic race were represented on screen.

For Siordia, the project brought together several seemingly different parts of his career. A Monterey Bay native, his background spans aerospace engineering, flight testing of advanced and unmanned aircraft, crewed aviation, historic aircraft preservation, and international motorsports competition. The Pulitzer offered a rare opportunity to bring those worlds together through a competition built around technology, engineering, and aviation.

That crossover also made DART’s involvement particularly fitting. DART’s work to strengthen the Monterey Bay region’s innovation ecosystem, develop technical talent, and connect education with emerging industries closely parallels the larger purpose behind the revived Pulitzer: using an ambitious technical challenge to engage people with what comes next.

The original Pulitzer Trophy races helped capture the public imagination during a formative period in American aviation. Pilots and manufacturers used competition to push aircraft performance while demonstrating new technologies in a highly visible environment. One hundred years later, electric propulsion provided a new technological frontier for that same competitive spirit.

DART’s sponsorship put the Monterey Bay region directly into that story as a participant in the future of flight.

The significance of the revival has continued beyond the race itself. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has recognized the 2025 event as part of the continuing historical lineage of the Pulitzer Trophy Air Race, connecting the modern competition with an aviation legacy stretching back to 1920. Following the recent Museum of Flight presentation, additional screenings of the documentary are planned around the country.

For Siordia, seeing the race transition from an ambitious idea, to an aircraft on the starting line carrying DART’s support, and ultimately to a story being shown in one of the nation’s major aviation museums has given the experience a significance well beyond the competition itself.

It is also a reminder of what regional partnerships can accomplish. From the Monterey Bay to a national air race, and now to museum screens across the country, DART’s support helped place our region within a new chapter of American aviation history—and helped demonstrate that the future of aerospace can be shaped by communities willing to participate in building it.