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The Archives is a repository for unique or rare, primary materials relating to aviation safety and security. Although our collections don't circulate like library books, we do welcome researchers to use them both on site and on-line.
Our Digital Library contains digital documents, including thousands of photographs, letters, reports, and other documents, most of which offer full text.
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"Vanity vs Gravity" (PDF)
Jerome Lederer, Aero Insurance Underwriters, 1939
In this paper, written for the 2nd Annual Southwest Aviation Conference in 1939, Jerry Lederer urged pilots and all those involved in aviation to give due respect to Gravity, "the god of aviation" who detests vanity in the air. Humility and the willingness to recognize the limitations of humans and aircraft is the antidote to overconfidence and vanity. "Truly in the world of Aviation the meek shall inherit the earth because the earth shall inherit the others."
From the Jerome Lederer Papers, part of the Flight Safety Foundation Jerry Lederer Aviation Safety Library (MS-016)
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