Glenn H. Curtiss

Glenn H. Curtiss was a noted motorcycle builder and racer. He built his own engines and began producing engines for airships. As early as 1906 Curtiss was trying to sell his engine designs to the Wright brothers for use in their aircraft. In 1908, he became involved in the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), a group formed by Alexander Graham Bell, as their Director of Experiments. The AEA focused on designing aircraft. It was in that same year, 1908, that the Association was successful in building the "June Bug", an aircraft powered by a Curtiss engine that won the Scientific American Trophy for the first flight in the United States covering a distance of one kilometer. Curtiss himself piloted the plane. The following year he won the James Gordon Bennett Cup in France when his Golden Arrow traveled at over 46 mph. In 1910 Curtiss staged his sensational flight down the Hudson River from Albany to New York City. In 1911 Curtiss produced the world's first practical seaplane. He also began work on a large flying boat, the Curtiss H-12 that he hoped to use to cross the Atlantic. On the outbreak of the Great War, the Royal Navy Air Service purchased two of these aircraft. They were so impressed with their performance that they ordered another sixty-two.