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NEW YORK -- Two famous women flyers are scheduled to take off Wednesday, Jan. 8, on the first leg of a nationwide aerial tour to mobilize a fleet of privately-owned craft for humanitarian use in war-torn lands and in disaster-stricken areas of the United States.

The women are Miss Ruth Nichols, record-breaking socialite flyer, and Miss Lee Ya-Ching, China's most famous woman aviatrix. Miss Nichols will be first pilot on the flight, in a Beechcraft plane donated by C. V. Whitney, Pan American Airways board chairman. She is executive director of Relief Wings, Inc., a civilian organization for sending airplanes to aid disaster victims here and abroad.

Weather permitting, the ship will take off Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. for Florida, where Miss Nichols and Miss Lee will form new units of Relief Wings from civilian flyers taking part in the All-American Air Maneuvers starting Friday at Miami.

Miss Lee, who will be second pilot, represents a Relief Wings drive to raise funds for purchase of aircraft equipment for a year's operation of an air relief service in unoccupied China. Funds will also be raised to assist the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) in European relief.

During the past six months Relief Wings has staged two simulated aerial rescue maneuvers, involving hundreds of small land and seaplanes operating along the North Atlantic Coast from bases in six states.

The first hypothetical mass flight for disaster relief, aimed at aiding victims of a mythical hurricane, took place near Greenport, L.I. The second featured a test rescue "of 2,000 American refugees from a fire on an ocean line off Gloucester, Mass."

In each of the civilian aerial maneuvers Miss Nichols' organization