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After the Wright Company was formed on November 22, 1909, it was able to produce about two airplanes a month.  The Wrights knew it was not yet time for the Company to operate profitably by selling airplanes for private use.  Their main opportunity for profit was from military purchases, public exhibitions, and competitive events.  Relatively few people in the United States had yet seen an airplane in flight and crowds would flock to behold the new contraption which barely wobbled off the ground into the air.

In early 1910 the picture began to change radically.  At this time Knabenshue was racing his dirigible against Lincoln Beachy's at the First Intenrational Air Meet, held at Dominquez Field near Los Angeles, on January 10-20, 19010.  The greatest interest at the meet was in the faster, more maneuverable airplanes.  In fact, by 1910, interest in balloons lighter-than-air machines, parachutes, and all related exhibitions began to wane and the public's interest in the airplane was growing by leaps and bounds---especially as a form of entertainment.

Just as its predecessor balloons and dirigibles, airplanes were used in exhibitions and were a natural object of curiosity.  In almost every community people wanted to see one in flight and exhibitions were the logical means for showing it to the public.

The Los Angeles meet was promoted by Dick Ferris, who had paid $50,000 to the Frenchman, Louis Paulhan, to fly his Farman airplane daily during the meet.  By now, Knabenshue and Beachey were accustomed to beign the stellar attractions at air meets.  On tune-up day, preceding their scheduled dirgibible-race, they were working in 

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