The Curtiss Aviation Book

The time has come when the world is going to need a new type of men–almost a new race. These are the Flying Men. The great dream of centuries has come true, and man now has the...

Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born at Hammondsport, New York, May 21, 1878. His middle name shows his connection with the pioneer family for which the town is named. Then Hammondspo...

In the spring of 1900 Curtiss embarked in the bicycle business for himself, opening a shop near his old place of employment. This shop soon came to be known as the "industrial i...

Thomas Scott Baldwin was engaged in building a dirigible balloon in California when he chanced to see a new motorcycle, the motor of which seemed to be exactly what he wanted to...

In 1905, while in New York City, I first met Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Dr. Bell had learned of our light-weight motors, used with success on the...

It was my desire to build a machine and install a motor at once, and thus take advantage of the opportunity furnished by the thick, smooth ice over Lake Keuka at that season of...

Following the success of the "White Wing" we started in to build another machine, embodying all that we had learned from our experience with the two previous ones. Following our...

As a result of the winning of the Scientific American Trophy, the Aeronautical Society of New York City placed an order in the winter of 1908-09 for an aeroplane to be demonstra...

Prior to the first flights in New York City I had formulated plans for an improved machine, designed for greater speed and equipped with a more powerful motor. I wanted to take...

I was not permitted to remain long in Hammondsport, although there was much work for me to do there in the way of planning improvements in the factory, as well as on my aeroplan...

To fly from Albany to New York City was quite an undertaking in the summer of 1910. I realised that success would depend upon a dependable motor and a reliable aeroplane. In pre...

The Albany Flight was a great stimulus to aeronautics in this country. Prizes were at once offered in several different places by several different newspapers, and a great many...

January had nearly passed before the first machine was ready. Although this proved unsuccessful, I was not discouraged and learned a good deal about what sort of a float was nec...

If you look over the books on aviation that were published even a comparatively short time ago, you will see how much of them is given to prophecies and how little to records of...

Sportsmen are likely to find in the aeroplane, especially in the hydro, an admirable vehicle for hunting, aside from their interest in its racing capacity. Already there is pend...

The most interesting type of flying machine for sport and pleasure is the hydroaeroplane, and this is undoubtedly the machine with the greatest possibilities for the future. Ind...

In a consideration of the final structure of the Coming Aeroplane, we pass into the realm of pure prophecy, for the aerial liners and dreadnaughts of the future are still snug i...

Whenever science discovers anything new or startling, such discovery is immediately tested by practical men of commercial or professional life to ascertain whether or not it can...

THE first active interest of the Navy Department in the practical side of aviation may be said to date from November, 1910, when Glenn H. Curtiss offered to instruct one officer...

There is great popular interest in the problem of soaring, or flying as birds do, without any apparent effort, and also in gliding flights, or descending from a high altitude wi...

You can take a perfect machine and select ideal conditions and let everything be right for making a flight and then it is directly up to the pupil–he must do the operating of th...

The man who contemplates buying an aeroplane for his own use will be especially interested in three subjects: First, how difficult it is to learn to fly; second, how long it tak...

There is no one question that people ask more often than: "How does it feel to fly!" Perhaps a passenger feels more keenly the sensations of flight than an aviator because his m...

The general impression among aviators and manufacturers of aeroplanes is that the hydroaeroplane is rapidly becoming the flying craft of the future, by reason of its ease of con...

All great masters have been represented by pupils who have done honour to their teacher and have achieved personal success in a large measure. Mr. Curtiss is no exception to thi...

No type of aeroplane is more familiar in America than the Curtiss biplane. By long experimentation, this machine has been developed for practical use; and is now used for milita...

The history of the Curtiss motor goes back to the early days at Hammondsport; it was the keynote of the development of the motorcycle, the airship, the aeroplane, and the hydro....