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air-minded, Mr. Ferguson said.

"The earth-bound citizen who sees or reads about the remarkable feats performed by planes and pilots here is less apt to resist the sober appeal of commercial transports or of owning and flying a personal plane. The air races also dramatize aviation in a way calculated to arouse the interest of youth in it as a career."

Another function of the National Air Races is to provide a spur to the manufacturers, who recognize the advertising value in having built or supplied parts for a plane which wins one of the events, Mr. Ferguson said.

The quest for speed in racing, he pointed out, contributed to the development of flush rivets and of improved finishing methods for fuselage and wing surfaces. The development of retractable landing gear was encouraged in the early stages by the eagerness of rival manufacturers to produce faster planes. The Bendix Trophy Race encouraged peacetime efforts to solve the problems of high altitude flying. 

"In general, and looking to the future," Mr. Ferguson said, "the National Air Races will continue to offer rugged tests of engines and airplane construction. In this competition planes will be forced to the limits of their endurance. Such tests of design, construction and parts are bound to be useful guides to the engineers who have the responsibility of maintaining America's world leadership in aviation."

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