Ford National Reliability Air Tour
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A series of Airshows sponsored by Ford from 1925 to 1931. Top prize was the Edsel Ford Reliability Trophy.
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[edit] 1931 National Air Tour
The following comes from a New York paper:
The second day of the 1931 National Air Tour for the "Edsel B. Ford Trophy" today, was to find the 14 competing planes and a dozen accompanying planes en route from Le Roy, New York, to Binghamton, New York. From Binghamton, the tour is to fly south and west as far as San Antonio, Texas, returning to Ford Airport July 25, 1931. A holiday crowd of about 5,000 persons witnessed the start of the tour from the Ford Airport Saturday morning. Colonel Clarence M. Young, assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, came from Cleveland, Ohio to witness the start. Fifteen Army planes from Selfridge Field stunted over the field just before the takeoff and accompanied the tour planes as far as Walker Airport, Walkerville, Ontario At Walker Airport, where the tour planes stopped for a long luncheon hour, they joined the large number of planes participating in the Trans-Canada Air Pageant there. Most of the racers got off to a bad start from Ford Airport. Only flying a Mercury Chic, Captain William Lancaster, flying a Bird and Eddie Schneider, flying a Cessna, got away on time. Leonard Flo, flying a Bird cabin plane, was delayed more than a half hour when he broke a tail skid just before the takeoff and the two Ford entries were 15 minutes late. The racers were timed from the minute they were supposed to take off. Other entries are Charles F. Sugg, Captain Walter Henderson and Jack Story, flying Buhl entries; James H. Smart and Harry Russell, flying Ford trimotors; Joseph Meehan, flying a Great Lakes; Lowell Bayles, flying a Gee Bee; Eddie Stinson, flying a Stinson and George Dickson, flying an Aeronca. Among the well-known pilots flying accompanying planes are Major James H. Doolittle, referee of the tour, who is accompanied by Mrs. Doolittle and Mrs. Ray W. Brown, wife of the assistant tour starter; Capt. Lewis A. Yancey, who flew with Roger Q. Willliams across the Atlantic in 1928, who is piloting an autogiro in the tour; Walter E. Lees, Detroit pilot who holds the world's non-refueling endurance record, and George Haldeman, who attempted to fly the Atlantic with Ruth Elder. Major Thomas G. Lanphier, former commandant at Selfridge Field, is accompanying the tour as far as Binghamton as a passenger. Night stops after tonight will be as follows: Monday, Bradford, Pennsylvania; Tuesday, Wheeling, West Virginia; Wednesday, Huntington, West Virginia; Thursday, Knoxville, Tennessee; Friday, Memphis, Tennessee; Saturday, Birmingham, Alabama; July 12, Montgomery, Alabama; July 13, New Orleans; July 14, Shreveport, Louisiana; July 15, Houston, Texas; July 16, San Antonio, Texas; July 17 and 18, Fort Worth, Texas; July 19, Ponca City, Oklahoma; July 20, Kansas City; July 21, Lincoln, Nebraska; July 22, Omaha, Nebraska; July 23, Davenport, Ia.; July 24, Kalamazoo, Michigan; July 25, Detroit, Michigan. The tour will cover more than 6,000 miles, visiting 18 states. The Ford Trophy will go to the pilot whose plane performs most efficiently, as judged by the scoring formula, over the entire distance. A separate trophy, the Great Lakes Light Plane Trophy, will go to the pilot of the plane of less than 510 cubic inches engine displacement which makes the best score.
[edit] 2003 Recreation
The tour was recreated in 2003 from the plans for the canceled 1932 tour, with replicas and antique planes. The tour covered 4,000 miles and 27 cities. The public was able to see a great many historic planes land and take off as well as ask questions and tour the inside of several of the larger planes.
[edit] Reference
- Lesley Forden, The Ford Air Tours 1925-1931
