System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Glenn Hammond Curtiss, Aviation pioneer
May 21, 1878 - July 23, 1930
Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, N.Y. on May 21, 1878. His given names, chosen in honour of the town founder and the glen which graces the head waters of Lake Keuka , forever link him to his birthplace.
His early mechanical prowess and exploits in speed with bicycles, motorcycles and flying machines made him the thinly disguised model for the series of boy's books known as "The Adventures of Tom Swift".
Hammondsport was the site of Curtiss' bicycle and motorcycle shop, and his early experiments in aviation were as a member of Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association (1907–9), including the flight of the "June Bug" in 1908 which won Curtiss the "Scientific American" trophy and later U.S. pilot's license number one.
In 1908 he made the first public flights in the United States, and in 1909 he established the first flying school there. Another of his triumphs was his then daring and spectacular flight from Albany to New York City in 1910. In 1911, Curtiss invented ailerons. In 1912, Lake Keuka was the scene of the first flight of a flying boat which, together with his sale of the first aeroplane to the US Navy in 1911, earned Curtiss the title of "The father of Naval Aviation".
In the early decades of the 20th Century, Hammondsport was a center of American aviation, attracting people from around the world to engage in the design, manufacture, and flight instruction of flying machines, flying boats, and dirigibles.
In 1916, Curtiss organized the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corp., which built many planes for the Allied nations during World War I. In fact, the Hammondsport plant was a twenty-four hour a day arsenal producing OX5 engines for the famous Curtiss "Jenny", trainer for virtually all U.S. and Canadian pilots. After the war Curtiss continued to contribute radical improvements in the design of both planes and motors. WWII saw renewed patriotic effort as the Mercury Aircraft Co. of Hammondsport produced tail assemblies for the P40 War Hawk, manufactured by Curtiss-Wright, the successor company. Curtiss died on July 23, 1930, at age 52. He was interred in Hammondsport's Pleasant Valley Cemetery.
