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Trophy Race, filled with hope and determination of success, streaking out one by one over the mountains and across the plains, to Cleveland and then on to the eastern seaboard in quest of a new transcontinental record.

One of the big purses of the year, $27,500.00 to be divided among the winning pilots, enables the winning pilot establishing a new Bendix transcontinental record to tuck away $12,500.00, or if a woman wins, by virtue of the extra bonus of $2500.00 to the woman first in the race, goes a purse of $15,000.

Clipper cut to a form no clipper ship of the seas had ever hoped to attain, these trim racing ships of the air, loaded to the last fraction of an ounce of carrying capacity in fuel, their struggle to make their take-off and to gain the altitude to safely carry them over the terrifying mountainpeaks so directly ahead is one of anxious moments and fraught with perilous hazard.

Eight times in the past eight years, in the fastest ships inventive genius has been able to create, on this long prearranged day of days, regardless of either or winds, these intrepid beings on destiny have forced their way into the air, and braved the hours of crucial test.

The dream of every pilot, glorious success, illustrious distinction, the fulfillment of intelligent conception and sublime perseverance on the part of these pilots of daring courage who venture into this romance of the air, is symbolized in the award to the winner of the coveted Bendix Trophy, the honored possession of which has inscribed thereon the names of some of the worlds most famous flyers.

It was with the thought of stimulating the developmental and research phases of aeronautic art, airfoil, engines, and accessories that Bendix first sponsored the competitive character of the Bendix Race. Its history definitely manifests its inherent distinction as an ideal testing field of practical value and far reaching results, providing as it does flight conditions comparable to those of every day commercial air traffic, and which may be more clearly interpreted as having year by year blazed the way in finer mechanics, greater speed, and greater safety which the superb air traffic of today has followed.

The race and its rewards are an incentive, the economic benefits of which and incalculable, Milestones of progress in the advancement of aviation, and milestones in the progress of civilization, for the progress of the peoples of the world have been measured by the progress of their means and speeds of transportation.

In the records of the Bendix Trophy Race are woven such names as Jimmie Doolittle, Jimmie Haislip, Roscoe Turner, Doug Davis, Bennie Howard, Louise Thaden, Frank Fuller, and last but not least Jacqueline Cochran. Some of the records of these pilots stand in their class today as a challenge to the future.

Louise Thaden in 1936, and Jacqueline Cochran in 1938 have lent color to the classic in that courage and endurance have not been lacking in women daring to enter the sacred precincts of mens pioneer flying leadership.