User:Timathom/Glenn Curtiss

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For the basketball player, see
Glenn Curtis
.
Glenn Hammond Curtiss
Aviator
SpouseLena Pearl Neff ( March 7, 1898 - until his death)
Children2 children
Parent(s)Lua Andrews
Frank Richmond Curtiss

Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation 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. In 1908 Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), a pioneering research group, founded by Alexander Graham Bell at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia to build flying machines.

Curtiss made the first officially witnessed flight in North America, won a race at the world's first international air meet in France, and made the first long-distance flight in the United States. His contributions in designing and building aircraft led to the formation of 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 predominant in the inter-war and World War II eras.

Birth and early career

Curtiss was born in 1878 in

Eastman Kodak Company) in Rochester, New York.[1] He invented a stencil machine adopted at the plant and later built a rudimentary camera to study photography.[1]

Marriage and family

On March 7, 1898, Curtiss married Lena Pearl Neff, daughter of Guy L. Neff and his wife, in Hammondsport, New York. They had two children together.

Bicycles and motorcycles

Glenn Curtiss on his V8 motorcycle in 1907

Curtiss began his career as a

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.[5]

In 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)

F-head engine was intended for use in aircraft.[6] He would remain "the fastest man in the world," to use the title the newspapers gave him, until 1911,[7] and his motorcycle record was not broken until 1930. This motorcycle is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[8] Curtiss's success at racing strengthened his reputation as a leading maker of high-performance motorcycles and engines.[9]

Aviation pioneer

Curtiss, motor expert

Glenn H. Curtiss's pilot license

In 1904, Curtiss became a supplier of engines for the California "aeronaut"

dirigible in America.[10]

In 1907, Alexander Graham Bell invited Curtiss to develop a suitable engine for heavier-than-air flight experimentation. Bell regarded Curtiss as "the greatest motor expert in the country"[11] and invited Curtiss to join his Aerial Experiment Association (AEA).

AEA aircraft experiments

The June Bug on its prize-winning historic flight with Curtiss at the controls.

Over 1908 - 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 feet, to win the Scientific American Trophy and its $2,500 purse.[12] This was considered to be the first pre-announced public flight of a heavier-than-air flying machine in America. 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; Orville Wright received license #5. The flight of the June Bug propelled Glenn Curtiss and aviation firmly into public awareness. 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.[13]

The pre-war years

Aviation competitions

During the 1909-1910 period, Curtiss employed a number of demonstration pilots including Eugene Ely, Charles "C.K." Hamilton and Hugh Robinson. 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.[14] This was a busy period for Glenn Curtiss.

In August 1909, Curtiss competed in the world's first air meet, the

Wrights, who were selling their machines to customers in Germany at the time, decided not to compete in person. There were two Wright aircraft (modified with a landing gear) at the meet but they did not win any events. Curtiss went on to win the overall speed event, the Gordon Bennett Cup, a 20 km course at 46.5 miles per hour (74.8 km/h) in just under 16 minutes, six seconds faster than runner-up Louis Blériot. [N 1]

The 1913 Langley Medal awarded to Curtiss

On May 29, 1910, Curtiss flew from Albany to New York City to make the first long-distance flight between two major cities in the U.S. For this 137-mile (220 km) flight, he won a $10,000 prize offered by publisher Joseph Pulitzer and was awarded permanent possession of the Scientific American trophy.

In June 1910, Curtiss provided a simulated bombing demonstration to naval officers at Hammondsport. Two months later, Lt. Jacob E. Fickel demonstrated the feasibility of shooting at targets on the ground from an aircraft with Curtiss serving as pilot. One month later, in September, he trained Blanche Stuart Scott, who was possibly the first American woman pilot. The fictional character Tom Swift, who first appeared in 1910 in Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle and Tom Swift and His Airship, has been said to have been based on Glenn Curtiss.[17] The Tom Swift books are set in a small town on a lake in upstate New York.[18]

Naval aviation

On November 14, 1910, Curtiss demonstration pilot

Eugene Ely took off from a temporary platform mounted on the forward deck of the cruiser USS Birmingham. His successful takeoff and ensuing flight to shore marked the beginning of a relationship between Curtiss and the Navy that remained significant for decades. At the end of 1910, Curtiss established a winter encampment at San Diego to teach flying to Army and Naval personnel. It was here that he trained Lt. Theodore Ellyson, who was to become U.S. Naval Aviator #1, and three Army officers, 1st Lt. Paul W. Beck, 2nd Lt. George E. M. Kelly, and 2nd Lt. John C. Walker, Jr., in the first military aviation school. The original site of this winter encampment is now part of Naval Air Station North Island
and is referred to by the Navy as "The Birthplace of Naval Aviation".

Through the course of that winter, Curtiss was able to develop a float (pontoon) design that would enable him to take off and land on water. On January 26, 1911, he flew the first seaplane from the water in the United States.[19] Demonstrations of this advanced design were of great interest to the Navy, but more significant as far as the Navy was concerned, was Eugene Ely successfully landing his Curtiss pusher (the same aircraft used to take off from the Birmingham) on a makeshift platform mounted on the rear deck of the battleship USS Pennsylvania. This was the first arrester-cable landing on a ship and the precursor of modern day carrier operations. On January 28, 1911, Ellyson took off in a Curtiss “grass cutter” to become the first Naval aviator.

Curtiss custom-built floats and adapted them onto a Model D so it could take off and land on water to prove the concept. On February 24, 1911, Curtiss made his first amphibian demonstration at North Island by taking off and alighting on both land and water. Back in Hammondsport, six months later in July 1911, Curtiss sold the U.S. Navy their first aircraft, the A-1 Triad. The A-1, which was primarily a seaplane, was equipped with retractable wheels, also making it the first amphibian. Curtiss trained the Navy's first pilots and built their first aircraft. For this, he is considered in the USA to be "The Father of Naval Aviation". The A-1 was immediately recognized as so obviously useful, it was purchased by the U.S. Navy, Russia, Japan, Germany and Britain. Curtiss won the Collier Trophy for designing this aircraft.[20]

Around this time, Curtiss met the retired English naval officer John Cyril Porte who was looking for a partner to produce an aircraft with him in order to win the Daily Mail prize for the first transatlantic crossing. In 1912, Curtiss produced the two-seat "Flying Fish", a larger craft that became classified as a flying boat because the hull sat in the water; it featured an innovative notch (known as a "step") in the hull that Porte had recommended for breaking clear of the water at takeoff. Curtiss correctly surmised that this configuration was more suited to building a larger long-distance craft that could operate from water, and was also more stable when operating from a choppy surface. In collaboration with Porte, Curtiss designed the "America" in 1914, a larger flying boat with two engines, for the transatlantic crossing.

World War I and later

World War I

With the start of World War I, Porte returned to service in the Royal Navy's Seaplane Experimental Station, which subsequently purchased several models of the America, now 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 back 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 American built aircraft that saw combat in World War I.

As 1916 approached, it was feared that the United States would be drawn into the conflict. The Army's

JN-4
"Jenny" for the Army, and the N-9 seaplane version for the Navy. It is one 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

NC-4
.

Patent dispute

See also:
The Wright brothers patent war

A patent lawsuit by the Wright brothers against Curtiss in 1909 continued until it was resolved during World War I. Since the last Wright aircraft, the Wright Model L, was a single prototype of a "scouting" aircraft, made in 1916, the

U.S. government
, desperately short of combat aircraft, pressured both firms to resolve the dispute. In 1917 the U.S. government offered a large and profitable contract to Curtiss to build aircraft for the U.S. Army.

Post-World War I

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.[21] He continued 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.[22]

Later years

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

Miami Springs Villas House, Dar-Err-Aha, MSTR No. 2. or Glenn Curtiss House.[23] The Glenn Curtiss House, after years of disrepair and frequent vandalism, is being refurbished to serve as a museum in his honour.[24]

His frequent hunting trips into the Florida Everglades led to a final invention, the Adams Motor "Bungalo", a forerunner of the modern recreational vehicle trailer (named after his business partner and half-brother, G. Carl Adams). Shortly before his death, he designed a tailless aircraft with a V-shape wing and tricycle landing gear that he hoped could be sold in the price range of a family car.[25]
The Wright Aeronautical Corporation, a successor to the original Wright Company, ultimately merged with the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company on 5 July 1929, forming the Curtiss-Wright company, just before Glenn Curtiss's death.[20]

Death

Tombstone

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

Awards and honors

Curtiss was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1964, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998,[26] 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[27] as well as a collection of airplanes, motorcycles and motors.[28]

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

Timeline

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Curtiss was awarded French pilot's license No. 2 as a tribute to his Gordon Bennett Cup victory.[15] Blériot held No. 1, Leon Delagrange, No. 3, as the first 15 certificates of the Aero Club de France were all issued on 4 December 1909 with the first three issued in "alphabetical order."[16]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Roseberry 1972, p. 10.
  2. ^ Post, August. "The Evolution of a Flying-Man", The Century: A Popular Quarterly, Volume 81, 1911, pp. 13–14. Retrieved: July 20, 2010.
  3. ISBN 0-559-64105-2
    . Retrieved: July 20, 2010.
  4. ^ "Glenn Curtiss." Popular Science, March 1927, p. 130. ISSN 0161-7370.
  5. ^ Harvey 2005, p. 254.
  6. ^ House 2003, p. 40.
  7. ^ Roseberry 1972, p. 57.
  8. ^ "Curtiss V-8 Motorcycle." Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Collections. Retrieved: February 24, 2011.
  9. ^ Hatch 2007, p. 36.
  10. ^ Roseberry 1972, p. 41.
  11. ^ Roseberry 1972, p. 71.
  12. ^ "Glenn H. Curtiss." centennialofflight.net, 2003. Retrieved: July 20, 2009.
  13. ^ Casey 1981, p. 38.
  14. ^ Casey 1981, pp. 65–67.
  15. ^ Roseberry 1972, p. 320.
  16. ^ "Forty-eight Years Back; Some Notable Aviation Anniversaries: Recollections of the Early Certificate-holders." Flight, 4 January 1952.
  17. ^ Dizer 1982, p. 35.
  18. ^ Karenko, J. P. "Tom Swift and his Motorcycle." tomswift.info, August 1, 2006. Retrieved: September 8, 2009.
  19. ^ Roseberry 1972, p. 314.
  20. ^ a b "The Curtiss Company." US Centennial of Flight Commemoration, 2003. Retrieved: January 28, 2011.
  21. ^ Rosenberry 1972, p. 429.
  22. ^ Studer 1937, p. 352.
  23. ^ a b "The Life and Times of Glenn Hammond Curtiss." aviation-history.com. Retrieved: July 20, 2010.
  24. ^ "The Glenn Curtiss House." Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms: A National Registry of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. via nps.gov. Retrieved: July 20, 2010.
  25. ^ "V-Shaped Plane Has Low Landing Speed." Popular Science, March 1931.
  26. ^ Timathom/Glenn Curtiss at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame
  27. ^ "Glenn H. Curtiss Collection." National Air and Space Museum - Documents. Retrieved: April 23, 2011.
  28. ^ "Glenn H. Curtiss Collection." National Air and Space Museum - Objects. Retrieved: April 23, 2011.
  29. ^ House 2003, pp. 31–32.
  30. ^ "Glenn Curtiss." nationalaviation.org. Retrieved: May 30, 2011.
  31. ^ Johnson, Paul F. Roper Steam Velocipede. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved: May 30, 2011.
  32. ^ Girdler, Allan. "First Fired, First Forgotten." Cycle World (Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Volume 37, Issue 2, February 1998, pp. 62–70. ISSN 0011-4286.
  33. ^ a b de Cet 2003, p. 116.
  34. ^ Studer 1937, p. 256.
  35. ^ Studer 1937, p. 258.
  36. ^ House 2003, p. 213.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenn Curtiss.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Cover of Time Magazine

13 October 1924 		Succeeded by



Category:1878 births Category:1930 deaths Category:American aerospace engineers Category:Aviation history of the United States Category:International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees Category:American aviators Category:American inventors Category:Aviation pioneers Category:Aviators from New York (state) Category:Members of the Early Birds of Aviation Category:Motorcycle land speed record people Category:Alexander Graham Bell Category:Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductees Category:Motorcycle designers Category:Collier Trophy recipients Category:American cyclists Category:People from Hammondsport, New York Category:National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees Category:Recipients of the Langley Medal Category:Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductees

Glenn Hammond Curtiss
Born1878
Died1930


Glenn Hammond Curtiss ...

Biography

Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, New York, on May 21, 1878. Born in poverty, Curtiss would rise to international acclaim and become one of the nation’s wealthiest men. Curtiss’ career began in a bicycle shop, where he experimented with gasoline engines and their various applications. By the age of 25 he had become a manufacturer of motorcycles and one of America’s most renowned motorcycle racers. Curtiss established land speed records at Providence, Rhode Island in 1905 and Ormond Beach, Florida in 1907.

Curtiss’ experiments led him to invent engines for dirigibles. His reputation led Alexander Graham Bell to employ him to design engines for “lighter than air craft.” As a result of his work with Bell, he was appointed Director of Experiments fo the National Aerial Experiment Association.

Glenn Curtiss enjoyed developing engines and aircraft, and he loved flying them. In 1908 he entered a contest sponsored by Scientific American to fly one kilometer; in his airplane “June Bug,” Curtiss won the contest, the first officially recognized powered flight by man (the Wright Brothers’ flight in 1903 was not recognized for many years).

Curtiss developed an insatiable appetite for flying. He entered aerial races through the Northeast, and in 1910 set a record for long-distance flight when he became the first man to fly from Albany to New York City in under twenty-four hours; he won a prize of $10,000 from the New York World. Curtiss’ feat earned him extensive accolades, prizes, and honors, including the James Gordon Bennett Cup and the Prix de la Vitesse.

In 1910 he formed the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company to manufacture aircraft. During the course of his career Curtiss became a leading innovator in the advancement of aviation. Along with lifeboats, airboats, and speed boats. With Hugh Robinson, he also developed the first aircraft carrier for the Navy and the world’s first seaplane. Curtiss’ company invented the “Jenny,” the only United States combat aircraft to be used in World War I. Curtiss would go on to build the first “flying boats” to cross the Atlantic Ocean and circumnavigate the globe.

In 1916 Glenn Curtiss came to Miami to locate a flying school. He met James H. Bright, a cattle rancher from Missouri who owned 17,000 acres in western Dade County. Bright shared Curtiss’ interest in flying and donated land northwest of Miami for a flying field. Curtiss subsequently purchased controlling interest in Bright’s business and formed the Curtiss-Bright Ranch in 1917. Their holdings soon grew to 120,000 acres in western and northwestern Dade County. Curtiss’ aircraft business flourished during the First World War, netting him a fortune estimated at $32 million.

Glenn Curtiss, his wife, Lena Neff Curtiss, his mother, Lua Andrews Curtiss, and his mother-in-law, Jennie Neff, moved to South Florida in 1921. Curtiss and Bright, seeing the Florida Land Boom coming with post-war economic growth, drained their wetlands and prepared it for subdivision. Their first venture, Hialeah, was a great success. The new development featured large suburban lots and small estate acreages. Curtiss introduced Jai Alai from Cuba as a sales promotion for Hialeah; since then, the game has become popular in Florida.

Hialeah’s success prompted Curtiss and Bright to plan a new, upper middle-class community, located to the southwest of Hialeah, to compete with Coral Gables. In 1924, the community of Country Club Estates was formed. Its resort-oriented, Beaux-Arts city design featured Pueblo Revival architecture; it, too, was a successful venture. Today, Country Club Estates is known as Miami Springs.

Despite the profitability of the first two Curtiss-Bright developments, Glenn Curtiss had even more ambitious dreams for his real estate holdings. He envisioned a new city, north of Miami, located in a beautiful hammock known to the Seminole Indians as Opatishawockalocka. While developing Hialeah he had shortened the Seminole word to “Opa-Locka” for use as a street name. In January of 1929, Curtiss announced plans for Opa-Locka, but Bright convinced him to drop the scheme because of its cost.

As the Florida Land Boom reached its peak in 1925, Curtiss independently re-thought his dream city. He decided that his city needed not only perfect planning and beautiful design, but a unique architectural theme as well, something different from the Mediterranean style his friend George Merrick was using in Coral Gables, or from the Pueblo style employed in Country Club Estates.

Curtiss hired Clinton MacKenzie, who had worked in Coral Gables, as his town planner to lay out the development’s streets. Daniel E. Clune was hired as Opa-Locka’s chief engineer. Curtiss chose Bernhardt E. Muller of New York City for his chief architect. Curtiss’ mother had attended a Christian Science church in New York designed by Muller; she suggested to her son that Muller could provide some ideas for Opa-Locka.

Muller, after reading a copy of The One Thousand and One Tlaes of Arabian Nights, proposed that Opa-Locka become a fantasy city that would translate the stories of the Tales into architectural expression of literature. Muller wired Curtiss about his concept of a city based on the Arabian Nights. Curtiss had the architect come to Opa-Locka to discuss the possibility of a community planned with the orient in mind. Curtiss was fascinated with Muller’s ideas and chose the Moorish Revival style of architecture for his new project.

In December 1925, the Opa-Locka Company was formed, with Curtiss holding most of the stock, and street construction began. The development was announced on January 14, 1926, and lot sales began immediately. As promotions for Opa-Locka, Curtiss introduced the game of “Archery Golf,” which combined both archery and golfing skills. Curtiss soon developed one of Florida’s most extensive recreational package of amenities, including an eighteen hold golf course, parks, Dade County’s first zoo, a pool with aquatic shoes, a flying field with aerial rodeas, stables, a nature preserve, and an observation tower. He also persuaded the Seaboard Air Lien Rail Road to build its tracks and station through the new town, providing the railroad’s first station north of Miami and commuter service for the town’s residents.

Glenn Curtiss was described as a silent and taciturn man, always courteous but conversant only to express an idea. He had no formal religious faith, believing simply in goodness, honesty, and decency. He disdained alcohol and tobacco for health reasons. Most of all, Glenn Curtiss was known as a humanitarian. He organized relief efforts for residents in Opa-Locka, Hialeah, and Country Club Estates after the hurricane in 1926. Curtiss also poured large sums of his personal fortune into Opa-Locka, even after the land rush had ended, in order to keep his city thriving while other developments in the Miami area fell to bankruptcy.

In 1927 Curtiss put plans to expand Opa-Locka on hold until the economy improved. Nevertheless, he envisioned small sections of the city to be done in various architectural styles, including Egyptian, Chinese, and English Tudor sections. These plans were never to have been realized, however, as the national economy worsened. Curtiss Lost millions in the stock market crash in 1929; consequently, he discontinued his land ventures although he and his family were financially secure.

Glenn H. Curtiss died suddenly of a stroke in a Buffalo, New York Hospital on July 23, 1930, thus putting to an end his grand “Dream of Araby” for Opa-Locka.

References


Bibliography


External links

Library and archival resources by and about Glenn Hammond Curtiss.




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