CROSSING THE BAR

The annuals of American aviation contain the names many men who quietly and efficiently have performed their duty, without the aid of public acclamation and the sport-light of fame. The pilots of the Army, Navy and commercial airlines, in making daily flights from city to city, year in and year out, have contributed invaluable service to the cause of American aviation, and their work is all the nobler because it is unheralded and unsung.

The recent death of Edwin C. Musick, pilot of the airplane that fell into the Pacific near Pago Pago, is a blow to aviation's progress, as American flying has lost one of its oldest and ablest servants, Musick made his first flight in 1913 in a homemade plane, and during the World War he enlisted in the aviation section of the signal corps, and subsequently served as an instructor in the army. He was one of the three Americans who have received the Harmony trophy; Charles Lindbergh and Wiley Post being the other two.

In 1923 Musick made initial flight for Pan-American airways from Key West to Havana, and flew the first RI-motor airplane ever to be used on an airline. Recently he completed twenty-five years of perfect record flying, without accident or casualty. Always conservative, intelligently cautions, and yet daring within the safeguards of common sense, he loyally and effectively advanced Pan Air's safety record and the general progress of aviation. Fortunately there are other like him who will continue the fine tradition which he established, so that his untimely death will not stop America's forward advances in safe flying.