Curtiss, Glenn

Date of birth: May 21, 1878.

Place of birth: Hammondsport,

New York.

Died: July 23, 1930.

Major contributions: Aviation pioneer; built the world’s first seaplane.

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lenn Curtiss showed a knack as a mechanic and a taste for speed at an early age. As a young child, Curtiss raced other children on bicycles in his town. He opened a bicycle repair shop at age seventeen and also began working with engines. Soon after, he built his first motorcycle. In 1902 he formed a new company to produce motorcycles in large numbers. At the same time, he began racing them, win­ning several different championships and setting speed records. People called him “the fastest man alive.”

О Glenn Curtiss sits at the controls of one of his biplanes.

Curtiss’s motorcycle engines were light and powerful, making them perfect for aircraft. Hearing of Curtiss’s success with motorcycles, pioneer balloonist Thomas Baldwin asked him to develop an engine for an airship he was building. Going aloft with Baldwin, Curtiss devel­oped an interest in flying.

In 1907 Alexander Graham Bell – inventor of the telephone—and others formed a new group, called the National Aerial Experiment Association, to build airplanes. They hired Curtiss. In 1908 Curtiss and his crew produced a small plane called the June Bug. With Curtiss flying it, the June Bug won a contest to become the first American airplane to travel 1 kilometer (0.6 miles)—in fact, Curtiss flew twice the required distance. The next year, Curtiss won another American race with a new airplane. In the late summer of 1909, in Reims, France, he won several competitions, enhancing his reputation.

Curtiss gained another triumph in 1910. The New York World newspaper was offering a $10,000 prize to the first pilot to fly from Albany, New York, down the Hudson River to New York City within a day. Curtiss successfully performed the feat, winning the money and even more acclaim.

Curtiss faced a different challenge in 1911: to produce a working seaplane. He placed a long float under the fuselage of an airplane as well as smaller ones under each wing. The plane had wheels so it also could be land-based. The wheels were retractable—the first time

this feature appeared on an aircraft. Curtiss built the seaplane for the U. S. Navy and demonstrated it successfully several times in 1911.

In 1912 Curtiss produced a successful flying boat. Like a regular seaplane, a flying boat can be landed on water. Instead of using floats, however, it lands on the fuselage itself.

Curtiss began building airplanes that the U. S. Army and Navy bought as trainers. Each had two cockpits and two sets of controls, so an experienced pilot could take over if a trainee encountered problems. The most well-known of these trainers was the Jenny, which became the standard military trainer during World War I. It was also popular with stunt pilots after the war.

During the 1920s Curtiss continued to build new designs. He also became interested in developing real estate in the Miami, Florida, area. He continued working until his death in 1930.

Curtiss met Orville and Wilbur Wright in the summer of 1906. At the time his only aviation work had been with air­ships. Since the Wrights did not see Curtiss as a rival, they were more open with him than usual. Later, when Curtiss was working on airplanes, the Wrights came to think that he had stolen ideas from them. They sued him, and the case stayed in the courts until World War I.

At that time, the government forced all aircraft companies to pool their patents in the interests of national security. As a result, the case no longer mattered. Years later, the Curtiss and Wright com­panies merged and became one.

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SEE ALSO:

• Airship • Flying Boat and Seaplane

• Landing Gear • Wright, Orville and Wilbur

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