Glenn Curtiss

Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early as 1904, he began to manufacture engines for airships, and with his V8 engine in the Curtiss V-8 motorcycle, on January 24, 1907, Curtiss set an unofficial world speed record, for all kinds of vehicles, that was not broken until 1911.

In 1907, Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment Association, a pioneering research group, founded by Alexander Graham Bell at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, to build flying machines. On July 4, 1908, he flew nearly a mile with the AEA June Bug, recording the first public flight in North America. It won him the Scientific American prize, and also a lawsuit with the Wright Brothers, who had declined to fly in public.

In 1909, Curtiss won the Gordon Bennett Aviation Trophy at the world's first international air meet in France, the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne. In 1910 he made the first long-distance flight in the U.S., across NY state. His contributions in designing and building aircraft, like the use of ailerons, led to the formation of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, which later merged into the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. His company built aircraft for the U.S. Army and Navy, and, during the years leading up to World War I, his experiments with seaplanes led to advances in naval aviation. Curtiss civil and military aircraft were some of the most important types in the interwar and World War II eras.

Glenn Curtiss was born in 1878 in Hammondsport, New York, situated on the southern tip of Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in New York. His mother was Lua Curtiss née Andrews and his father was Frank Richmond Curtiss, a harness maker who had arrived in Hammondsport with Glenn's grandparents in 1876. Glenn's paternal grandparents were Claudius G. Curtiss, a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, and Ruth Bramble. Glenn Curtiss had a younger sister, Rutha Luella, also born in Hammondsport.

Although his formal education extended only to eighth grade, his early interest in mechanics and inventions was evident at his first job at the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company (later Eastman Kodak Company) in Rochester, New York. His job at the factory was to stencil numbers on the paper backing of the film manufactured by the company. He figured out how to speed up the process of stenciling and built a "stencil machine": a rack with a brush on a hinge which would stencil one hundred paper strips with a single stroke of the brush. This improved his throughput ten times, and eventually the company adopted his invention.

Curtiss also built a rudimentary camera to study photography.

Curtiss began his career as a Western Union bicycle messenger, a bicycle racer, and bicycle-shop owner. In 1901, he developed an interest in motorcycles when internal combustion engines became more available. In 1902, Curtiss began manufacturing motorcycles with his own single-cylinder engines. His first motorcycle's carburetor was adapted from a tomato soup can containing a gauze screen to pull the gasoline up by capillary action. In 1903, he set a motorcycle land speed record at 64 miles per hour (103 km/h) for one mile (1.6 km). When E.H. Corson of the Hendee Mfg Co (manufacturers of Indian motorcycles) visited Hammondsport in July 1904, he was amazed that the entire Curtiss motorcycle enterprise was located in the back room of the modest "shop". Corson's motorcycles had just been trounced the week before by "Hell Rider" Curtiss in an endurance race from New York to Cambridge, Maryland.

On January 24, 1907, Curtiss set an unofficial world record of 136.36 miles per hour (219.45 km/h), on a 40 horsepower (30 kW) 269 cu in (4,410 cc) V-8-powered motorcycle of his own design and construction in Ormond Beach, Florida. The air-cooled F-head engine was intended for use in aircraft. He remained "the fastest man in the world", the title the newspapers gave him, until the Blitzen Benz in 1911, and his motorcycle record was not broken until 1930. This motorcycle is now in the Smithsonian Institution. Curtiss's success at racing strengthened his reputation as a leading maker of high-performance motorcycles and engines.

In 1904, Curtiss became a supplier of engines for the California "aeronaut" Tom Baldwin, who inspired Curtiss to pursue aviation. In that same year, Baldwin's California Arrow, powered by a Curtiss 9 HP V-twin motorcycle engine, became the first successful dirigible in America.

In 1907, Alexander Graham Bell invited Curtiss to develop a suitable engine (Curtiss B-8) for heavier-than-air flight experimentation. Bell regarded Curtiss as "the greatest motor expert in the country" and invited Curtiss to join his Aerial Experiment Association (AEA).

Between 1908 and 1910, the AEA produced four aircraft, each one an improvement over the last. Curtiss primarily designed the AEA's third aircraft, Aerodrome #3, the famous June Bug, and became its test pilot, undertaking most of the proving flights. On July 4, 1908, he flew 5,080 ft (1,550 m) to win the Scientific American Trophy and its $2,500 prize. This is considered to be the first pre-announced public flight of a heavier-than-air flying machine in America. The flight of the June Bug propelled Curtiss and aviation firmly into public awareness. On June 8, 1911, Curtiss received U.S. Pilot's License #1 from the Aero Club of America, because the first batch of licenses were issued in alphabetical order; Wilbur Wright received license #5. At the culmination of the Aerial Experiment Association's experiments, Curtiss offered to purchase the rights to Aerodrome #3, essentially using it as the basis of his Curtiss No. 1, the first of his production series of pusher aircraft.

After a 1909 fall-out with the AEA, Curtiss joined with A. M. Herring (and backers from the Aero Club of America) to found the Herring-Curtiss Company in Hammondsport. During the 1909–1910 period, Curtiss employed a number of demonstration pilots, including Eugene Ely, Charles K. Hamilton, J. A. D. McCurdy, Augustus Post, and Hugh Robinson. Another pilot, Tod Shriver, was employed by Curtiss in his factory as early as 1906. Shriver played a similar role for Curtiss that Charlie Taylor had served for the Wright Brothers, seeing to the factory and being all around shop foreman; he later went with Curtiss to France where the latter won the speed competitions. Aerial competitions and demonstration flights across North America helped to introduce aviation to a curious public; Curtiss took full advantage of these occasions to promote his products.

In August 1909, Curtiss took part in the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne aviation meeting at Reims, France, organized by the Aéro-Club de France, and sponsored by Gordon Bennett, publisher of the New York Herald. The Wrights, who were selling their machines to customers in Germany at the time, decided not to compete in person. Several Wright Model A customer aircraft (modified with a landing gear) were at the meet, but they did not win any events. On August 28, 1909, flying his No. 2 biplane, Curtiss won the overall speed event, the Gordon Bennett Cup, completing the 20-km (12.5-mile) course in just under 16 minutes at a speed of 46.5 mph (74.8 km/h), six seconds faster than runner-up Louis Blériot.

With the start of World War I, Porte returned to service in the Royal Navy, which subsequently purchased several models of the America, then called the H-4, from Curtiss. Porte licensed and further developed the designs, constructing a range of Felixstowe long-range patrol aircraft, and from his experience passed along improvements to the hull to Curtiss. The later British designs were sold to the U.S. forces, or built by Curtiss as the F5L. The Curtiss factory also built a total of 68 "Large Americas", which evolved into the H-12, the only American designed and built aircraft to see combat in World War I.

As 1916 approached, the United States was feared to be drawn into the conflict. The Army's Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps ordered the development of a simple, easy-to-fly-and-maintain, two-seat trainer. Curtiss created the JN-4 "Jenny" for the Army, and the N-9 seaplane version for the Navy, designed as a trainer. They were some of the most famous products of the Curtiss company, and thousands were sold to the militaries of the United States, Canada, and Britain. Civilian and military aircraft demand boomed, and the company grew to employ 18,000 workers in Buffalo and 3,000 workers in Hammondsport.

In 1917, the U.S. Navy commissioned Curtiss to design a long-range, four-engined flying boat large enough to hold a crew of five, which became known as the Curtiss NC. Three of the four NC flying boats built attempted a transatlantic crossing in 1919. Thus NC-4 became the first aircraft to be flown across the Atlantic Ocean (a feat quickly overshadowed by the Daily Mail prize-winning first non-stop Atlantic crossing from any point on North America to any point in the British Isles by Alcock and Brown), while NC-1 and NC-3 were unable to continue past the Azores. NC-4 is now on permanent display in the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida.

Peace brought cancellation of wartime contracts. In September 1920, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company underwent a financial reorganization. Glenn Curtiss cashed out his stock in the company for $32 million and retired to Florida. He continued on as a director of the company, but served only as an adviser on design. Clement M. Keys gained control of the company, which later became the nucleus of a large group of aviation companies.

Curtiss and his family moved to Florida in the 1920s, where he founded 18 corporations, served on civic commissions, and donated extensive land and water rights. He co-developed the city of Hialeah with James Bright and developed the cities of Opa-locka and Miami Springs, where he built a family home, known variously as the Miami Springs Villas House, Dar-Err-Aha, MSTR No. 2, or Glenn Curtiss House. The home, after years of disrepair and frequent vandalism, is being refurbished to serve as a museum in his honor.

On March 7, 1898, Curtiss married Lena Pearl Neff (1879–1951), daughter of Guy L. Neff and Jenny M. Potter, in Hammondsport, New York. They had two children: Carlton N. Curtiss (1901–1902) and Glenn Hammond Curtiss (1912–1969).

Traveling to Rochester, New York, to contest a lawsuit brought by former business partner August Herring, Curtiss suffered an attack of appendicitis in court. He died on July 23, 1930, at age 52, in Buffalo, of complications from an appendectomy. His funeral service was held at St. James Episcopal Church in his home town, Hammondsport, with interment in the family plot at Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Hammondsport.

By an act of Congress on March 1, 1933, Curtiss was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which now resides in the Smithsonian Institution. Curtiss was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1964, the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in 1965, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998, and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2003. The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has a collection of Curtiss's original documents as well as a collection of airplanes, motorcycles and motors. LaGuardia Airport was originally called Glenn H. Curtiss Airport when it began operation in 1929.

Other Curtiss honors include: Naval Aviation Hall of Honor; OX-5 Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame; Empire State Aviation Hall of Fame; Niagara Frontier Aviation and Space Hall of Fame; International Air & Space Hall of Fame; Long Island Air & Space Hall of Fame; Great Floridians 2000; Steuben County (New York) Hall of Fame; Hammondsport School Lifetime Achievements Wall of Fame; Florida Aviation Hall of Fame; Smithsonian Institution Langley Medal; Top 100 Stars of Aerospace and Aviation; Doctor of Science (honoris causa), University of Miami.

The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport is dedicated to Curtiss's life and work.

Curtiss's famed airplane appeared on a 1918 issue US airmail stamp. along with fifteen other US airmail stamps, (including the first air mail stamps), and on the stamps of at least 17 other countries. Curtiss himself appeared on the cover of Time in 1924.

There is a Curtiss Avenue in Hammondsport, New York, and Glenn Curtiss Elementary School. Carson, California, has Glenn Hammond Curtiss Middle School and Glenn Curtiss Street. Glenn H. Curtiss Road is in San Diego, California, and Glenn Curtiss Boulevard is in East Meadow/Uniondale, New York (Long Island). Glenn Curtiss Drive is in Addison, Texas, and Curtiss Parkway in Miami Springs, Florida. Buffalo, New York, has a Curtiss Park and a Curtis Parkway (named for Glenn despite the incorrect spelling). The Curtiss E-Library in Hialeah, Florida was originally the Lua A. Curtiss Branch Library, named for Glenn's mother.