In 1932, Bill Piper dispatched his salesmen in $1,300 Cubs. They were paid $15 a week, given another $25 for expenses, and admonished not to return to the factory in Pennsylvania until their airplanes were sold More than 70 years later, not much has changed for airplane salesmen. Now, as then, they spend countless solitary hours flying across the country in search of paying customers, who are generally wealthy, sometimes eccentric, and often unpredictable. During demonstration flights, salesmen are turning over control of their airplanes to total strangers without much knowledge of their flying abilities. Like peddling illegal drugs, selling airplanes is one of the few occupations in which a prospective customer can kill you.
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