Glenn Curtiss

Life & Legacy

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 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.