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He flew very low most of the way down the river and spark plugs were his major troubles, flying at times on only three of the six cylinders of his Roberts engine. Movie photographer William Trepts made the trip with Tony from St. Louis to New Orleans. Tony brought the FIRST air mail ever delivered into Memphis, Tennessee on this trip. His total flying time was 31 hours, 43 minutes, longest day's trip was 181 miles, and 42 public exhibitions were flown.

By mid-January, 1913 Tony was back in St. Louis testing the new Benoist Flying Boat. In April he announced his entry in the Great Lakes Reliability Cruise from Chicago to Detroit scheduled to start July 8th. For this contest the Benoist Company made a new special Biplane Flying Boat powered by an 80 H.P. 6-cyl. Sturtevant engine mounted in the hull forward of the seats, with a shaft running back to drive the high pusher propeller by chain transmission. On June 24th Tony was in Duluth, Wisconsin to assist his brother Rodger with the first flight tests of a new Benoist Flying Boat purchased by wealthy Duluth grain trader W. D. Jones. On July 8th Tony was Entry No. 1 and first to start in the Great Lakes Reliability Cruise at Grant Park, Chicago. His passenger was Paul McCullough, the well known balloon pilot of St. Louis. Tony was set up and started flying at Grant Park on July 5th and did considerable test work on the two days following. Also starting in the Cruise were: Beckwith Havens in a Curtiss, carrying J. B. R. Verplanck; Walter Johnson in a Thomas, carrying Earl

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