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Glenn Curtiss
American aviator and industrialist (1878–1930)
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.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Glenn Curtiss (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born May 21, 1878, died Jul 23, 1930.1
About
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Glenn Curtiss, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Early life and education
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Glenn Curtiss (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: inventor, businessperson, sport cyclist, military flight engineer, racing automobile driver, aircraft designer, aircraft pilot.6
Personal life
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).
From Wikipedia’s article on Glenn Curtiss (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awards
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataGlenn Curtiss on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaGlenn Curtiss on Wikipedia
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- 12Wikidataaward, as reported
- 13Wikidataaward, as reported
- 14Wikidataaward, as reported
- 15WikidataGlenn Curtiss: IMDb, on Wikidata
- 16WikidataCurtiss, Founder
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