This further developed a spectrum of criminality that, on one end, tolerated aerial bootlegging, which often served the purpose of underlining the progress of aviation in integrating American society - i.e. if the airplane is good for bootlegging, it must be good at other, more beneficent, activities. At the other end of the spectrum, was the trope of the nihilistic criminal enterprise that employed aviators without scruples who would (according to the mythology) jettison their human cargo of smuggled Chinese aliens from a trapdoor in the bottom of their airplane at the first sign of trouble. This type of nuanced evaluation of aerial criminality and its social construction has thus far been overlooked by scholars.

While the problems of relying on press accounts for evidence are numerous, they are by far the most prevalent source on the topic. Few smugglers recorded their experiences in unrepentant form. As Prohibition ended and smuggling became largely associated with the distinctly anti-social smuggling of aliens and narcotics, American aviation was also moving to new standards of professional conduct that minimized the tolerance for adventurism and antiauthoritarianism embodied by aerial bootleggers. Most aviators with smuggling backgrounds permanently chose to conceal their participation in their activities. As a result, only a handful of memoirists have left detailed accounts of their activities. The best of these is Slats Rodgers' who smuggled on the Mexican border. He not only smuggled, but was a moonshiner who oversaw manufacturing and distribution. Where Rodgers wore his criminality proudly, Bert "Fish" Hassell regarded his smuggling activities as just a short chapter in an expansive and remarkable career as both a commercial pilot and military air commander. In 1967, Ed Bergman, in an article for Private Pilot magazine, interviewed the members of Florida's OX5 Club chapter (an organization of "pioneering" aviators) on their experiences in Prohibition era smuggling on the Bimini to Miami run, he noted that, "While history does not look unkindly on the blockade runners of the Revolutionary War, time and television have shamefully tarnished the image of all who were once involved in the illegal liquor traffic.