Air Races

Air Races, manufactured by Stoner Manufacturing Company of Aurora, Illinois in April 1937, is an electro-mechanical (EM) pin game from pinball's pre-flipper era. Notably, it is a payout machine — a class of 1930s games that dispensed winnings directly to the player — which places it firmly in the gambling-adjacent side of the decade's coin-op trade.

Specific gameplay details for Air Races are not documented, but as a single-player electromechanical payout game of its day it would have combined ball-and-hole scoring with electrically triggered payouts. Its 'Wartime' theme is a period touch, reflecting the militaristic imagery that was increasingly common in late-1930s popular culture, alongside the era's ongoing fascination with aviation and air racing.

Stoner Manufacturing operated from 1933 to 1941, and Air Races sits in the middle of that brief run. Little additional information about this machine has been documented, which only adds to its obscurity — and its intrigue — for students of pinball's formative years.