The year 1919 was memorable in the history of aviation for the first successful flight across the Atlantic, achieved by aviators of the United States Navy using NC flying boats, jointly developed by the United States Navy and the Curtiss Engineering Corporation, the N in the designation standing for navy and the C for Curtiss. Continue reading
Curtiss “Cruiser”.
Top Speed: n.a.
Engine: two Curtiss eight-cylinders
Wingspan: 75.8 feet
Weight: over 4,000 pounds
Specifications from “Practical Aviation,â€
Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of 1912 was the Curtiss flying-boat. Glenn Curtiss, who won the James Gordon Bennett race in 1909, had succeeded in rising from the water in 1913 with a similar biplane fitted with a central pontoon float instead of a wheeled under-carriage. This he made into a genuine flying-boat, consisting of a proper hydroplane-boat, with wings and engine superimposed Continue reading
The most famous and widely used American airplane of the World War One era. In the 1920′s countless ‘barnstormers’ flew Jennies in flight exhibitions all over the United States. The Curtiss tractor was identified by its manufacturers as Model JNB-4 and was been largely used for training purposes during the war. Continue reading
Under the American system of training aviators, the pupil goes into the air directly on completing his course of ground instruction, that is, in the details of the mechanism, theory, and assembly of the aeroplane, instead of as in the French system, being obliged to get his preliminary “flying in a penguin, or practically wingless machine. The latter is only capable at the most of exaggerated hops off the ground, whereas the American training plane is a standard machine designed for instruction. Continue reading
Resting on its undercarriage of 4 equally-spaced wheels, the Pfitzner monoplane might be compared to a flying grocery cart, with very long, rectangular wings.
In the early part of January, 1910, the monoplane designed by Mr. A. L. Pfitzner and built at the Curtiss aeroplane factory at Hammondsport, N. Y., was completed and flown. The first flights were short, due largely to the inexperience of the aviator, Mr. Pfitzner, but the monoplane was considered very promising. This aeroplane was a distinct departure from all other monoplanes in the placing of the motor, aviator, and rudders, and in an unorthodox method of transverse control by sliding surfaces, applied here for the first time. Continue reading
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The primitive biplane circled the course over Long Island’s Hempstead Plains ten times, covering fifteen miles, and then came down. The pilot was hungry. As Glenn Curtis put it: “I felt hungry and it was time for breakfast. Even an aeroplanist has to eat, and after making ten evolutions of the field I thought it was quite enough, and I reserved my ambitions for another day.” Presumably he ate a good breakfast that morning, July 16, 1909. Because he had just cut short his flight, less than a mile shy of the mark needed to win the Scientific American trophy. Continue reading
The great inventor Alexander Graham Bell, by then extremely wealthy, established the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in October 1907 to bring bright young engineers together in a creative environment. The AEA, composed of Bell as mentor, Douglas McCurdy, Frederick Baldwin, Lt. Thomas Selfridge, and Glenn Curtiss, went on to build aircraft as a team and test and perfect each other’s theories and methods for improving flight performance. Escaping the harsh winters of Nova Scotia, where Dr. Bell had his home and laboratories, the team moved south to Hammondsport, N.Y. Continue reading
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Curtiss O-1 Falcon (1920′s)
East Boston Airport
1936
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Curtiss Falcon (1930′s)
East Boston Airport
1936
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