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Glenn Hammond Curtiss 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 bro…
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business · American aviator and industrialist (1878–1930) · aircraft pilot · military flight engineer · sport cyclist · racing automobile driver · inventor · businessperson · aircraft designer · also Glenn Curtiss, Glenn H. Curtiss, Glenn Hammond Curtiss, Curtiss
Born 21 May 1878 · Died 23 July 1930 · Q454544
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Flying: Recalling Glenn Curtiss on a Flight into Albany International
“The Velocipede Invasion of 1869”
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Awarded National Inventors Hall of Fame (2003).
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Awarded National Aviation Hall of Fame (1964).
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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
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Curtiss was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which now resides in the Smithsonian Institution
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Died 1930-07-23.
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At age 52, in Buffalo, of complications from an appendectomy
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Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Miami (1930).
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With the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, forming Curtiss-Wright
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The Smithsonian Board of Regents reversed its position and acknowledged that the Wright Brothers deserved the credit for the first flight
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A larger flying boat with two engines, for the transatlantic crossing
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Won Langley Gold Medal (1913).
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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 recommended
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Won Collier Trophy (1911).
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Curtiss made his first amphibious demonstration at North Island by taking off and alighting on both land and water
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Ellyson took off in a Curtiss "grass cutter" to become the first Naval aviator
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Flew the first seaplane from the water in the United States
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And his motorcycle record was not broken until 1930
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Curtiss demonstration pilot Eugene Ely took off from a temporary platform mounted on the forward deck of the cruiser USS Birmingham
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Curtiss flew from Albany to New York City to make the first long-distance flight between two major cities in the U
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In Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle and Tom Swift and His Airship, has been said to have been based on Glenn Curtiss
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Made the first long-distance flight in the U
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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
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Continued until it was resolved during World War I
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Flew 5,080 ft (1,550 m) to win the Scientific American Trophy and its $2,500 prize
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Flew nearly a mile with the AEA June Bug, recording the first public flight in North America
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Curtiss set an unofficial world record of 136
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Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment Association, a pioneering research group, founded by Alexander Graham Bell at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, to build flying machines
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Alexander Graham Bell invited Curtiss to develop a suitable engine (Curtiss B-8) for heavier-than-air flight experimentation
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Curtiss became a supplier of engines for the California "aeronaut" Tom Baldwin, who inspired Curtiss to pursue aviation
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Set a motorcycle land speed record at 64 miles per hour (103 km/h) for one mile (1
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Curtiss began manufacturing motorcycles with his own single-cylinder engines
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Curtiss (1901–1902) and Glenn Hammond Curtiss (1912–1969).
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Developed an interest in motorcycles when internal combustion engines became more available
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Curtiss married Lena Pearl Neff (1879–1951), daughter of Guy L
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Born 1878-05-21.
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In Hammondsport, New York, situated on the southern tip of Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in New York
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