The Ford Reliability Tour, properly called "The National Air Tour for the Edsel B. Ford Reliability Trophy", was a series of aerial tours sponsored in part by Ford from 1925 to 1931 and re-created in 2003. Top prize was the Edsel Ford Reliability Trophy. Henry and Edsel Ford were shareholders in the Stout Engineering Company. In August 1925, they purchased the entire company, making it the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company. Their product, the Stout 2-AT Pullman, was a featured plane. The plane was also used by their new airline the Ford Air Transport Service, which started regular flights in April. The flights out of Ford Airport (Dearborn) cross-marketed, and showcased Ford's new interest in aviation.
Eddie August Schneider on September 27, 1930, accepting the Great Lakes Trophy in Detroit, Michigan from David Vincent Stratton of the Great Lakes Aircraft Corporation
1925 Ford Tour route
The winning Stinson SM-1 Detroiter in the foreground with a Ford Trimotor in the background. June 28, 1927.
1928 Ford Tour route starting in Detroit
Thomas F. Hamilton
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Thomas Foster Hamilton was a pioneering aviator and the founder of the Hamilton Standard Company.
Hamilton in front of Weick and Lindbergh