Glenn H. Curtiss: The Genesis of Greatness

 

When Glenn Hammond Curtiss died in 1930 at the age of 52, his old friend, C. G. Gray, second editor of "Jane's All the World's Aircraft," stated as part of his eulogy:

"Nobody has done more for the progress of flying than G. H. Curtis
 and few have done as much. He was a good man and a kindly man,  
and the world is very much poorer for his loss."

 And Gray included the following:
 

"...he had...withal," Gray said, "that simplicity that only great men have."

Our Forgotten American Eagle 

Click Glenn Curtiss link below for the available DVD about Curtiss.

Given his history, it's strange that Glenn Curtiss has been nearly forgotten. How could our young people not know.of this "great," gutsy American giant? In fact, in the first half of the twentieth century, Curtiss was revered as one of our most important aviation pioneers. Some say he was second only to the Wright brothers. It might be legitimately argued that he outshone them in nearly every respect.

Glenn Curtiss's contributions to our world didn't end when his life ended on July 23, 1930,  Many of his discoveries, inventions, and gifts, not just in aviation, continued to be developed and used long after his death, and many are still in use today. Moreover, the people who knew him well cherished their memories:

James Bright, who worked with Curtiss in Florida, developing the Miami Springs area, said, "No man could have asked for a better partner or a better friend." 1

Frank FitzGerald Bush stated, "My father said of [Curtiss] 'I never knew a more honorable man than Glenn, or a more moral man. If he had any religious convictions, he never spoke of them to me...despite his reticence on the matter--I think it must have been just a firm faith in honesty, decency and goodness.'"2

Nature or Nurture?

Who knows for sure why any person is--or becomes what we call great? I am suggesting a greatness that includes character, as well as important social advances, such as inventions and discoveries, literature, art, or education. Character is likely a combination of any number of qualities, such as a genuine concern for one's fellow man, a free flowing generosity, and a certain kind of humility..
 
Does greatness develop from nature, the gift of DNA, or is it nurture, that accumulation of life experiences? Without a doubt, it must be a combination of both. And Glenn had an abundance of both.

Family of Lua Andrews Curtiss,

 Glenn Curtiss's mother 

Above, at the home of Glenn Curtiss's grandfather, Henry Bradley Andrews, third from right. Glenn possibly took this picture, as he was a photographer. Fourth from left must be Fidelia, Glenn's proud grandmother, and fifth in the  spectacles is probably grandfather Henry Andrews' nephew Charles Smith, Glenn's mother's first cousin. He was one of this family of inventors, going way back. Smith is credited as the inventor of the Aladdin mantle lamp, Smith's son, Hazor Judson Smith, as the inventor of the first ice-less refrigerator. Photo copyright: family of Smith/Andrews

The priceless photo, above, is a  look at an elegantly simple Andrews family dinner in Jasper, upper state New York. Curtiss's grandfather had acreage there and owned a general store. Histories of Glenn Curtiss intimate that he came from a somewhat impoverished family. As a matter of fact, Curtiss's great great grandfather on his mother's side,  Judge Jabez Bradley, owned thousands of acres in Cayuga County, New York, and was a benefactor of the area.

Jasper, New York, the lovely birthplace of Lua Andrews, Glenn Curtiss's mother.

Henry Bradley Andrews' great grandfather, Ephraim Andrews, left his youngest son, Ichabod, a legacy that eventually was translated into land in Jasper, New York, at  right.



The ancestors of the Andrews and the Bradleys trace back to the first planters of New Haven, Connecticut, who are sometimes touted as blue bloods of America.

Before my research, which I am now just beginning to share,  historians have known little about Glenn's mother's family, the Andrews. His supposed "rags to riches" story probably originates from Glenn's working from the time he was young. Both his father, Frank Curtiss, and pastor grandfather, Claudius Curtiss, weren't wealthy and died before Glenn reached five years of age. So it can be legitimately argued  that Glenn was, eventually, a self made man and a self made multi-millionaire. But the Andrews were far from poor, and they kept in contact with Lua's family. Later, according to a Jasper resident, when Glenn could fly, he made the trek from Hammondsport to Jasper by air to see his Andrews grandparents. There can be no doubt they had an influence on his life.

Hammondsport, New York, the birthplace of Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the "Cradle of Aviation." On these waters of Keuka Lake and in San Diego, California, Glenn developed a practical hydroplane and invented the flying boat.

Curtiss's first fame in aviation burst forth like the sudden emergence of the sun, late in the afternoon of July 4, 1908, after the rain delayed his proposed flight of the "June Bug" that day. It happened in Hammondsport.

 In 1907 the Scientific American had offered a trophy and prize for whoever could demonstrate a straight line powered flight of a kilometer in this country. Where were the Wrights, who had supposedly made controlled flights as early as 1903? They had also claimed that, by 1905, they had remained in the air for 24 miles straight (well, even better, in circles round Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio).

The aviation groups, such as the Aero Club thought the Wrights would enter the competition..They had been told the Wrights had successfully flown, but strangely, only one among the contemporary aviation experts, Octave Chanute, had said he had seen them fly. The rest of the alleged witnesses Wrights named were some family, friends, and  Ohio locals. There was a friend, Amos Root, whose published testimony has often been put forth as proof of the Wright's accomplishments in 1904. That testimony is flatly contradicted by Root's own private correspondence, published since and available to the public. See  "Bombshell: The Wrights:Key Witness in this blog "Truth in Aviation History."

.Some of their fellows that the Wrights listed as witnesses wrote the Scientific American when queried that they had witnessed flights, but their claims were otherwise not verified by independent sources, nor were the Wrights' claims of distance and time of the flights, notably, the 24 mile claimed achievement. Significant it is that the Wrights never submitted as witnesses to the Scientific American the five who observed their attempts at flight December 17, 1903 at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina.

Three of these 1903 witnesses were Life Savers. Might it be that they wouldn't corroborate the Wrights' claims? As a matter of fact, we have repeated many times in this blog that two of these men said the Wrights took off from the incline of the hill, not level ground, as the Wrights said. A third witness, Johnnie Moore, eighteen years old in 1903, according to the U. S. census, said much later that the first flight was only "about fifty feet..." The last two witnesses never testified, and one resident of the area said they weren't flights at all, they were glides.

Octave Chanute, their long time mentor, who was promoting the brothers, said he saw them fly in 1904, but he didn't emphasize that he had only seen them catapulted into the air, stay up for less than 25 seconds, then crash out of control (Remember that the Wrights had claimed a 59 second flight at Kill Devil Hills in 1903.) Chanute never saw the  Wrights make a significant flight until 1908.

Referring to this one event in 1904 plus his trust in the word of the Wrights, Chanute apparently told Alexander Graham Bell he had seen the Wrights fly--and Chanute's word was respected by Bell. Bell was respected by the aviation community, who, therefore, believed Bell. What the aviation community believed was, therefore, mostly hearsay.

  The Wrights didn't come forward to enter the Scientific American competition in 1907 or 1908. They said they were too busy. Note: We do believe that the Wrights' machine had stayed in the air, manned and with a motor, before 1908, but we also believe that the Wright plane was unreliable in power and control; and reports indicate that it couldn't take off without the assistance of the wind, an incline, or a catapult.  (The Wrights claimed in their diary a few take offs from level in Dayton in 1904 and, of course, in 1903. There is absolutely no proof, whatsoever, beyond the Wrights' statements and the diary.) Calculations of the weight of their plane and their engine power indicate that it could not take off without assistance. It also couldn't fly very far for a time because of the overheating of the engine. The Wrights' own calculations were only claims and unproven.

The proposed Scientific American competition required that the plane take off under its own power with wheels. This requirement eliminated the Wrights as competitors, anyway. The Wrights claimed they could put wheels on their plane in place of their skids but their system with a catapult was better. We surmise the Wrights weren't ready for public flights or take offs from level with wheels. Can you imagine what  would have happened if the Wrights had publicly demonstrated the unreliability of their plane? The much publicized Langley failure to successfully take off five years earlier weighed heavily at the time, because Langley was ridiculed by the press. The Wrights also wanted secrecy, they said. Their own explanation for their secrecy was that they wanted to protect their secrets.This is nonsense. The Wright's patent with drawings was made accessible when it was granted in 1906.  Despite what Wright historians say, most of the Wrights' techniques and "discoveries" had been developed prior to their entry into aviation. See "The Wrights Discovered What? Another Chapter" for example,

There were many pioneer aviators who were flying by 1908 in Europe, already breaking records. The Wrights claimed these aviators all copied them. How could this be then, if they were keeping their "secrets" secret? The original structure of the Wright's biplane was basically Chanute's, or claimed by Herring. I will have to be informed what their other earth shaking secrets were. The Wrights later tried to say it was their technique of wing warping hooked up to their rudder. That indeed was their technique and the basis of their 1906 patent; but actually, the Wrights had to unhook the linkage of their wing warping to their rudder even before they sued all the other pilots for infringement.. It was dangerous and untenable. Moreover, according to Chanute, the use of the wing warping together with a rudder had been patented prior to the Wrights.3

After tests of their plane, the "June Bug,"proved to them it could meet the requirements of the Scientific American Trophy in 1908, the Aeronautical Experiment Association (AEA) decided to enter the competition

The members of the AEA, coordinated by Alexander Graham Bell and assisted financially by Bell's wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell, had decided to tackle the flying problem in 1907. Within months, they were in the air. This isn't so surprising.  The AEA was made up of five super intelligent men working on the problem with some genius sprinkled in. According to Alfred Francis Zahm (note in "Aerial Navigation," page  234), the information needed was out there before the Wrights even began their experiments or came on the scene. Pioneers, such as Maxim, Stringfield, Henson, Mouillard, Langley, Chanute.and Lillienthal had done the research, although, later, the Wrights tried to claim much of it as their own.In fact, by 1948, the Smithsonian bowed to the Wright family demands and placed a plaque next to their claimed Wright Flyer on display there that the Wrights indeed discovered it all. See other posts in this blog. However, the AEA's Selfridge was excellent at digging up information, and Curtiss had developed an engine by then easily up to the task, America was ready for this moment.

The pilot chosen for the flight was the tall, taciturn "G. H." (Glenn) because  the AEA's  third "drome" or plane, the "June Bug," was mostly his design, Even though the planes were basically joint endeavors, they were designated to individuals of the group. Most of the work had been done in Hammondsport, Glenn's home town.

And so, on July 4, 1908, the village of Hammondsport on Keuka Lake in New York waited, thrilling with excitement. It is said that the whole town  turned out to watch  their native son Glenn Hammond Curtiss fly. But people turned out from neighboring villages as well. The town folk mingled with important people, who had traveled there some three hundred miles, all the way from places like  New York City to observe and officially witness. In fact, I understand that the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) was there to make it all official.

The flight was advertised as the first pre-announced public flight in America.

It was a wait for the crowd. Glenn insisted on perfect conditions. There was a false start. After some adjustments, they brought the plane back to the starting line. Imagine then what it was like in the little town of Hammondsport on July 4, 1908, when their own Glenn rose into the air, the little motor loudly thrumming, and flew over the fences and fields for more than the required kilometer. Indeed, these people were among the first to see the dream of flight finally officially realized. Though others had claimed powered flight, this was in front of their own eyes by their town hero--and they were the participants. For a long time afterward, there were people who believed it was Glenn who was first to fly--ever.

This  moment in 1908  marked the beginning of Glenn's career as a pioneer aviator. And his aviation fame. After his public success in Hammondsport, he was  to become the prime force in building the nascent aviation industry in America

The clip above is a short biography of Glenn Curtiss. Watch for one error. Curtiss's first public flight was not with a seaplane from Lake Keuka. He hadn't developed one yet. Nevertheless, the film of his later plane taking off from the lake is marvelous.
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The summer of 1908, the Wright faction began their attacks on Curtiss that have continued for over a hundred years. Note that from the beginning, they singled out Curtiss from the AEA for their law suits. An example of history's injustices: Wright "historians" say the Wrights' claimed  "first flights" in 1903 were controlled because they were able to turn (they believe), and Curtiss's 1908 flight was only a straight line flight. In reality, the Wrights' in 1903 didn't actually even attempt any turns. And in truth, the June Bug was equipped with ailerons, and Glenn turned the June bug to avoid some trees at the end of his flight.

On July 10, 1908, less than a week after the June Bug's public flight, an elated Glenn telegraphed Alexander Graham Bell that he had flown a complete circle using the ailerons.4 The Wrights threatened Curtiss in a letter dated July 20, 1908, claiming ailerons were the same as their wing warping and that he was infringing on their 1906 patent for control. Only trouble is, the Wrights successful wing warping had to be used in conjunction with their rudder. Curtiss didn't need to link to his rudder or even need to use his rudder to achieve a complete turn. Moreover, ailerons were a vast improvement over the Wrights' wing warping. The many injustices of the Wright law suits are a story in themselves.

Below, a  page from Boys' Life, Aug 1961

"Boys; Life," "The Boy Who Fixed Things."

Today, few young people have even heard of Glenn Curtiss. Aviators and historians, who feel they are knowledgeable after reading Wright biased books, know the history only superficially and actually believe much of what we have proven in our research to be false propaganda, stemming from the self promotion and even self aggrandizement of the Wrights and their allies.

 Click here for more on Glenn Curtiss and the first pre-announced public flight in America, Hammondsport. July 4, 1908.

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 *  Curtiss's grandmother on the Andrews side, was Fidelia Morse Andrews. Her family, the Morses, averred that they were closely related to Samuel F. B. Morse, famous painter and inventor of the telegraph. 

 1. Jack Carpenter, Pendulum II (San Juan Capistrano, Arsdalen, Bosch & Co., 2003, 408

 2. Carpenter, Pendulum II, 436 

 3. Carpenter,   Pendulum II, 237  

  4. Carpenter, Pendulum II, 171