Aeronautics: For Reliability

When the halfway mark of the seventh annual National Air Tour was reached at New Orleans last week, only nine planes remained of the 15 which had started to compete for the Edsel B. Ford Reliability Trophy. Of the six flyers who cracked up or were forced down in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, one was fatally hurt. He was Pilot Charles Sugg whose Buhl Bull Pup was first to get away from Detroit at the start of the 6,000-mi. flight but who crashed into a hillside at Yorkville, Ohio. Lieut. Harry L. Russell, winner of the trophy last year, took the lead again (by points based on efficiency) early in the race with his Ford tri-motor; at half-mark he was well ahead of another Ford piloted by James H. Smart.