Ford's Reliability

For the second consecutive year shock-haired Pilot Harry L. Russell flew a trimotored Ford into Ford airport near Detroit last week to win the Edsel Bryant Ford Trophy for reliability in the National Air Tour (TIME, July 20). His easy victory over a field of 14 gave the Ford company its second leg of the current trophy (three consecutive victories gives permanent possession). Only once in the 6,590-mi. tour was Pilot Russell pressed for leading position, and then it was by Pilot James H. Smart flying another Ford, which finished second. Smart nearly caught up with Russell when the leader became lost over the mountains of Kentucky and failed to find Middlesboro. Later Russell had to fly back from Knoxville, Tenn., and touch at Middlesboro to escape heavy penalties. Sensation of the meet was the youngster Eddie Schneider, 19, who fell into last place by a forced landing of his Cessna and a three-day delay in Kentucky, then fought his way back to finish third, ahead of all other light planes.

Passenger

Like fire "buffs" who have alarm strikers in their homes, that they may up and away after the engines when a big fire breaks out, is the little group of men & women who strive for fame as flying passengers. Such a one is Mrs. Clara Adams of Tannersville, Pa. who flew last week via Pan-American Airways to Rio de Janeiro, there to board the laggard giant DO-X for its flight to the U. S.

Mrs. Adams, fortyish, has been flying as a passenger since 1914, has toured most of Europe, the West Indies and the U. S. by air. She has never attempted to become a pilot. A good friend of Dr. Hugo Eckener, she was the first paying woman passenger to cross the Atlantic in the Graf Zeppelin (Lady Grace Drummond Hay, Hearstling, preceded her but as a dead-head). In Manhattan last year she met Dr. Claude Dornier, offered $11,000 for passage in his huge flying boat for its much touted flight direct to the U. S. When the plane finally made its floundering way to South America, Dornier agents notified Mrs. Adams she might join it there.

In Tannersville Mrs. Adams is considered something of a character. She is supposed to have inherited a considerable fortune from her husband, George L. Adams, a tanner. She owns several automobiles, yet is frequently seen walking the nine miles between Tannersville and Stroudsburg, or hailing motorists for a lift. Tall and lean, she dresses plainly, wears cotton stockings. She plays the piano with exceptional skill, is locally famed as a china-painter. During the War she was under surveillance as a pro-German, suspected of being a distant relative of General Erich Ludendorff.

Other famed or inveterate air travelers: William Howard Gannett, 77, of Augusta, Maine,* retired publisher of Comfort who made a 19,000 mi. journey via Pan-American; Alden Freeman, 69, rich and eccentric philanthropist, "Honorary Consul-General of Haiti" (TlME, Feb. 16); Funnyman Will Rogers; Charles A. Levine, first transatlantic air passenger; George Nellis Grouse, Syracuse grocer, persistent Graf Zeppelin passenger and 'first flight fan" of domestic air lines.

Graf Flies North

A dozen scientists, some in their underwear, some in trousers, all in acute discomfort, at about the cabin of the Graf Zeppelin as she ambled one day last week from Friedrichshafen to Berlin, first stop on her 1931 Arctic cruise. To minimize the load, each man's baggage had been limited to the heavy fur & woolen clothing required in the Far North.

From Berlin the Graf resumed flight (her 202nd) to Leningrad, thence pushed on toward the island of Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land, where philatelists' mail was to be exchanged with the Russian icebreaker Malygin. Unless further unknown land were sighted, Dr. Eckener did not intend to push farther north. There was only the remotest possibility that he would venture to the Pole. More likely was the tentative course east to Northern Land, south to Cape Chelyuskin and back to Archangel via the Siberian Coast. Approximate distance: 6,200 mi. Estimated flying time: 100 hr.

To make room for the scientists, their bulky equipment and stores, the Graf's normal crew was reduced from 41 to 30 and the cabin radically remodeled. The ship's outward appearance, too, was altered by the addition of a large rubber pontoon bottom to the gondola, for sealanding.

The expedition, sponsored by the International Society for the Exploration of the Arctic by means of Aircraft (abbreviation: Aero-Arctic) has a threefold purpose: 1) search for new land beyond Novaya Zemlya, hitherto unexplored; 2) study Arctic meteorology for its effect on weather the world over; 3) study ice conditions for their effect on oceanography in the northern hemisphere.

Among the scientists, headed by fierce-mustached Professor Rudolph Samoilovitch of Leningrad, are two from the U. S.: Lincoln Ellsworth and Lieut.-Commander Edward H. Smith of the Coast Guard. There was a plan to halt the Graf over Kamenev Island in Northern Land Archipelago, lower an inflatable boat or a basket and take aboard Professor Urvantzov, who has for a year conducted an observation station there.

Most amazing of the party's new equipment is a sounding balloon developed by Professor Paul Molchanov of Leningrad. Because the chance of recovering such a balloon from the Arctic wastes is slim, the recording device is equipped with a light radio transmitter, which automatically transmits the readings of the instruments to the Graf Zeppelin.

Just before taking off from Friedrichshafen Dr. Eckener made a public explanation that the flight was imposing no burden of expense upon the German Republic. Three-fourths of the cost is being borne by foreign scientific bodies, he said; the remainder by stamp collectors.

* No kin of Chain-Publisher Frank Ernest Gannett of Rochester, N. Y.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.