Glenn Curtiss

Did You Know?

• Curtiss's first motorcycle carburetor was adapted from a tomato soup can containing a gauze screen to pull the gasoline up by capillary action.
• On January 24, 1907, Curtiss set an unofficial world record of 136.36 mph on a V-8 motorcycle in Ormond Beach, Florida, and remained 'the fastest man in the world' until 1911.
• Curtiss received U.S. Pilot's License #1 on June 8, 1911, because the first batch of licenses were issued in alphabetical order; Wilbur Wright received license #5.
• Curtiss won the Gordon Bennett Cup at Reims, France in 1909, completing the 20-km course at 46.5 mph, six seconds faster than runner-up Louis Blériot.
• In 1910, Curtiss flew 137 miles from Albany to New York City in just under four hours, winning a $10,000 prize from publisher Joseph Pulitzer.

Aviation pioneer

Glenn Curtiss first got into aviation after supplying engines to California balloonist Tom Baldwin in 1904. Baldwin’s dirigible, the California Arrow, ran on a Curtiss V-twin motorcycle engine and became the first successful airship in the United States. Baldwin also encouraged Curtiss to focus on flying. Three years later, Alexander Graham Bell asked Curtiss to build an engine for heavier-than-air experiments. Bell called Curtiss the country’s top motor expert and brought him into the Aerial Experiment Association, or AEA. From 1908 to 1910, the AEA built four aircraft. Curtiss was the main designer of the third one, the June Bug, and served as its test pilot. On July 4, 1908, he flew 5,080 feet to win the Scientific American Trophy and a $2,500 prize. That flight is remembered as America’s first publicly announced heavier-than-air flight. The June Bug’s success made Curtiss and aviation well known. When the AEA wrapped up, Curtiss bought the rights to the June Bug and used it as the foundation for his Curtiss No. 1, the first in a line of pusher aircraft. After leaving the AEA in 1909, he teamed up with A. M. Herring to start the Herring-Curtiss Company in Hammondsport. Over the next year, he hired demonstration pilots like Eugene Ely, Charles K. Hamilton, J. A. D. McCurdy, Augustus Post, and Hugh Robinson. Tod Shriver, who had worked in Curtiss’s factory since 1906, acted as shop foreman and later traveled with Curtiss to France, where Curtiss won speed contests. Aerial shows and competitions across North America brought aviation to the public, and Curtiss used them to market his products.

World War I and later

When World War I broke out, Porte went back to the Royal Navy, which bought several versions of the America—now called the H-4—from Curtiss. Porte took out a license, improved the designs, and built a series of Felixstowe long-range patrol planes, sending hull upgrades back to Curtiss. The later British models were either sold to American forces or produced by Curtiss as the F5L. Curtiss’s factory also turned out 68 “Large Americas,” which later became the H-12—the only American-designed and -built aircraft to see combat in World War I. By 1916, with the U.S. worried about being pulled into the war, the Army’s Aviation Section asked for a simple two-seat trainer that was easy to fly and maintain. Curtiss came up with the JN-4 “Jenny” for the Army and the N-9 seaplane version for the Navy. These became some of the company’s most famous products, with thousands sold to the U.S., Canada, and Britain. Demand for both military and civilian planes soared, and the company swelled to 18,000 workers in Buffalo and 3,000 in Hammondsport. In 1917, the U.S. Navy asked Curtiss to design a long-range, four-engine flying boat that could carry a crew of five—the Curtiss NC. Four of these were built, and three tried to cross the Atlantic in 1919. The NC-4 became the first aircraft ever to fly across the Atlantic, though that achievement was soon eclipsed by Alcock and Brown’s non-stop crossing. The NC-1 and NC-3 couldn’t get past the Azores. The NC-4 now sits on permanent display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida. When peace came, wartime contracts dried up. In September 1920, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was reorganized financially. Glenn Curtiss sold his stock for $32 million and retired to Florida, staying on as a director and design adviser. Clement M. Keys took control of the company, which later became the core of a big aviation group.

Awards and honors

Glenn Curtiss has been honored many times, including a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross awarded by Congress in 1933, now held at the Smithsonian. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the International Aerospace Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The National Air and Space Museum keeps his original documents, airplanes, motorcycles, and motors. LaGuardia Airport first opened in 1929 as Glenn H. Curtiss Airport. A museum in Hammondsport is dedicated to his life. His airplane appeared on a 1918 U.S. airmail stamp and on stamps from at least 17 other countries. Time magazine featured him on its cover in 1924. Schools and streets bearing his name include Glenn Curtiss Elementary School, Glenn Hammond Curtiss Middle School, Curtiss Parkway in Miami Springs, and roads in New York, California, Texas, and Florida. A park and a library in New York and Florida also honor him.

Timeline

1878: Birth in Hammondsport, New York. 1898: Marriage. 1900: Manufactures Hercules bicycles. 1901: Motorcycle designer and racer. 1903: American motorcycle champion; sets unofficial one-mile motorcycle land speed record at 64 mph on Hercules V8 at Yonkers, New York. 1904: Thomas Scott Baldwin mounts Curtiss motorcycle engine on a hydrogen-filled dirigible; sets 10-mile world speed record; invents handlebar throttle control. 1905: Creates G.H. Curtiss Manufacturing Company, Inc. 1906: Curtiss writes the Wright Brothers offering them an aeronautical motor. 1907: Joins Alexander Graham Bell in experimenting in aircraft; sets world motorcycle land speed record of 77.6 mi/h; sets world motorcycle land speed record at 136.36 mi/h in his V8 motorcycle in Ormond Beach, Florida. 1908: First Army dirigible flight with Curtiss as flight engineer; lead designer and pilot of June Bug on July 4. 1909: Sale of Golden Flyer to New York Aeronautic Society for $5,000 marks first sale of any aircraft in U.S., triggers Wright Brothers lawsuits; wins first international air speed record at 46.5 mi/h in Rheims, France; first U.S. licensed aircraft manufacturer; establishes first flying school in United States and exhibition company. 1910: Long-distance flying record of 150 mi from Albany, New York to New York City; first simulated bombing runs from an aircraft at Keuka Lake; first firearm use from aircraft, piloted by Curtiss; first radio communication with aircraft in flight in a Curtiss biplane; moves to California and sets up shop and flight school at Los Angeles Motordrome; trains Blanche Stuart Scott, first American female pilot; first successful takeoff from a U.S. Navy ship (Eugene Burton Ely, using Curtiss Plane). 1911: First landing on a ship (Eugene Burton Ely, using Curtiss Plane); Curtiss School of Aviation established at Rockwell Field in February; pilot license #1 issued for his June Bug flight; ailerons patented; develops first successful pontoon aircraft in U.S.; hydroplane A-1 Triad purchased by U.S. Navy (Navy's first aircraft); develops first retractable landing gear on his hydroaeroplane.