The 1930 Ford Air Tour

The 1930 Ford Air Tour

Completely off topic… and you know what? I don’t give a damn, cuz this is just flat out cool. The Ford National Reliability Air Tour was a series of Aerial Tours sponsored by Ford from 1925 until 1931. Essentially, about twenty or so planes would get together and race across the country – holding to a strict schedule of stops and appearances. Points were awarded for a lot different things, but ultimately the guy with the fastest and most reliable plane would take home the Edsel Ford Reliability Trophy.

Ford was so heavily involved because they had a stake in the Stout Engineering Company. In fact, in 1925 they bought the whole damn business and renamed it the Stout Metal Airplane Division of The Ford Motor Company. Their offering at the time was called the Stout 2-AT Pullman.

Anyway, that’s all old news… The video below is much more modern and filmed in 1930. The crazy rotary winged thing? That’s a Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogiro flown by Jim Ray. It actually did so well in the 1930 event that Champion Spark Plugs took notice and sponsored it for the 1931 event, titling her the “Miss Champion.” Later that same year, Amelia Earhart crashed one three damned times trying to break a round trip cross-country record.

Cool shit, right? Just watch video and pay particular attention to the men that piloted these things. Hot Rodders. The lot of them…

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