Air race championship takes flight in New Mexico's Roswell

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Pilots of military training planes prepare for future competition on May 21, 2025, in Roswell, N.M. (Robert Shellabarger via AP)

Fans of head-to-head airplane races at screaming speeds are traveling to unfamiliar skies as a premiere national competition debuts in New Mexico for the first time in its 60-year history.

The five-day National Championship Air Races runs through Sunday at a commercial airfield and former Air Force base outside Roswell. It's a remote oil production region that's also famous for supposed sightings of unidentified flying objects — called unidentified anomalous phenomena by the government — and speculation about extraterrestrials.

Most of the competitions take plac