Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company, Ltd

Company type	Public
Industry	Aerospace
Predecessor	Curtiss Aeroplane Company Curtiss Motor Company
Founded	March 1909; 116 years ago (1909-03)
Founders	Glenn H. Curtiss
Defunct	1929 (1929)
Fate	Merged withWright Aeronautical
Successor	Curtiss-Wright
Headquarters	Buffalo, New York , United States of America
Number of locations	3
Key people	Frank Henry Russell
Revenue	US$1.566 billion
Number of employees	21,000 (1916)
Parent	Willys-Overland (1917–1920)
Subsidiaries	Burgess Company (1916–1919)[1] Curtiss Engineering Company (1916–1932)

TheCurtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded byGlenn Hammond Curtiss andAugustus Moore Herring inHammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decades, it merged with theWright Aeronautical to formCurtiss-Wright Corporation.

In 1907,Glenn Curtiss was recruited by the scientist Dr.Alexander Graham Bell as a founding member of Bell'sAerial Experiment Association (AEA), with the intent of establishing an aeronautical research and development organization.^[2] According to Bell, it was a "co-operative scientific association, not for gain but for the love of the art and doing what we can to help one another."^[3]

In 1909, shortly before the AEA was disbanded,^[4] Curtiss partnered withAugustus Moore Herring to form the Herring-Curtiss Company.^[5][6] It was renamed the Curtiss Aeroplane Company in 1910 and reorganized in 1912 after being taken over by the Curtiss Motor Company.^[7][8][9]

The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was created on January 13, 1916, from the Curtiss Aeroplane Company ofHammondsport, New York, and Curtiss Motor Company ofBath, New York.Burgess Company ofMarblehead, Massachusetts, became a subsidiary in February 1916.^[10][11] At the same time, theCurtiss Engineering Company was established as a subsidiary inGarden City, New York.^[1][a]

With the onset ofWorld War I, military orders rose sharply, and Curtiss needed to expand quickly. In 1916, the company moved its headquarters and most manufacturing activities toBuffalo, New York, where there was far greater access to transportation, manpower, manufacturing expertise, and much needed capital. The company housed an aircraft engine factory in the formerTaylor Signal Company-General Railway Signal Company.^[14] An ancillary operation was begun in Toronto, Ontario, that was involved in both production and training, setting up the first flying school in Canada in 1915.^[15]

In 1917, the two major aircraft patent holders, theWright Company and the Curtiss Company, had effectivelyblocked the building of new airplanes, which were desperately needed as the United States was enteringWorld War I. The U.S. government, as a result of a recommendation of a committee formed byFranklin D. Roosevelt, thenAssistant Secretary of the Navy, pressured the industry to form a cross-licensing organization (in other terms aPatent pool), theManufacturer's Aircraft Association.^[16][17][18] Later that year, Curtiss was acquired by the automobile manufacturerWillys-Overland.^[19]

Curtiss was instrumental in the development of U.S. Naval Aviation by providing training for pilots and providing aircraft. The first major order was for 144 various subtypes of theModel F trainer flying boat.^[5] In 1914, Curtiss had luredB. Douglas Thomas fromSopwith to design theModel J trainer, which led to theJN-4 two-seat biplane trainer (known affectionately as the "Jenny").^[20][21]

The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company worked with the United States' British and Canadian allies, resulting in JN-4 (Can) trainers (nicknamed the "Canuck") being built in Canada.^[22] In order to complete large military orders, JN-4 production was distributed to five other manufacturers. After the war, large numbers of JN-4s were sold as surplus, making influential as the first plane for many interwar pilots, includingAmelia Earhart.^[23] A stamp was printed tocommemorate the Curtiss JN-4, however a printing error resulted in some having the aircraft image inverted, which has become very valuable, and one of the best known rare stamps, even being featured in a number of movies.

The CurtissHS-2L flying boat was used extensively in the war for anti-submarine patrols and was operated from bases inNova Scotia,France, andPortugal.John Cyril Porte of theRoyal Navy and Curtiss worked together to improve the design of the Curtiss flying boats resulting in theCurtiss F5L and the similarFelixstowe F.3. Curtiss also worked with theUnited States Navy to develop theNC-4, which became the first aircraft to fly across theAtlantic Ocean in 1919, making several stops en route. By the end of World War I, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company would claim to be the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, employing 18,000 inBuffalo and 3,000 in Hammondsport, New York. Curtiss produced 10,000 aircraft during that war, and more than 100 in a single week.

Peace brought cancellation of wartime contracts. In September 1920, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company underwent a financial reorganization andGlenn Curtiss cashed out his stock in the company for $32 million and retired toFlorida.^[24] He continued as a director of the company but served only as an advisor on design.Clement M. Keys gained control of the company from Willys-Overland and it later became the nucleus of a large group of aviation companies.^[25][26]

Curtiss seaplanes won theSchneider Cup in two consecutive races, those of 1923 and 1925. The 1923 race was won by U.S. Navy lieutenant David Rittenhouse flying aCurtiss R3C to 177.266 miles per hour (285.282 km/h). Piloted byU.S. Army Lt.Cyrus K. Bettis, a Curtiss R3C won thePulitzer Trophy on October 12, 1925, at 248.9 miles per hour (400.6 km/h).^[27] Thirteen days later,Jimmy Doolittle won theSchneider Trophy in the same aircraft fitted with floats with a top speed of 232.573 miles per hour (374.290 km/h).

TheCurtiss Robin light transport was first flown in 1928, becoming one of the company's biggest sellers during theGreat Depression, and the 769 built helped keep the company solvent when orders for military aircraft were hard to find.

On July 5, 1929, Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company together with 11 other Wright and Curtiss affiliated companies merged to become theCurtiss-Wright Corporation. One of the last projects started by Curtiss Aeroplane was the ambitiousCurtiss-Bleecker SX-5-1 Helicopter, a design that had propellers located midpoint on each of the four large rotors that drove the main rotors. This design, while costly and well engineered, was ultimately a failure.^[28]

Curtiss also operated a flying school atLong Branch Aerodrome inToronto Township, Ontario, from 1915 to 1917 before being taken over by theRoyal Flying Corps Canada.^[29]

Glenn H. Curtiss sponsored theAtlantic Coast Aeronautical Station on a 20-acre tract east of theNewport News boat harbor in the Fall of 1915 with CaptainThomas Scott Baldwin as head. Many civilian students, including Canadians, later became famed World War I flyers.Victor Carlstrom,Vernon Castle,Eddie Stinson and GeneralBilly Mitchell trained here. The school was disbanded in 1922.

• Curtiss-Bleecker SX-5-1 Helicopter

• Alfred V. Verville

• Bell, Dana, ed.Directory of Airplanes, their Designers and Manufacturers. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2002.ISBN 1-85367-490-7.
• Bowers, Peter M.Curtiss Aircraft 1907–1947. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1979.ISBN 0-370-10029-8.
• Casey, Louis S.Curtiss, The Hammondsport Era, 1907–1915. New York: Crown Publishers, 1981.ISBN 978-0-517543-26-9.
• Gunston, Bill.World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1993.ISBN 1-55750-939-5.
• Mondey, David, ed., revised and updated by Michael Taylor.The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft. London: Greenwich Editions, 2000.ISBN 0-86288-268-0.
• Milberry, Larry.Aviation in Canada. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1979.ISBN 0-07-082778-8.
• Milberry, Larry.Aviation in Canada: The Pioneer Decades, Vol. 1. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: CANAV Books, 2008.ISBN 978-0-921022-19-0.
• Molson, Ken M. and Harold A. Taylor.Canadian Aircraft Since 1909. Stittsville, Ontario: Canada's Wings, Inc., 1982.ISBN 0-920002-11-0.
• Olszowka, John. "From Shop Floor To Flight: Work and Labor in the Aircraft Industry, 1908-1945." Ph.D. Dissertation, Binghamton University, 2000.
• Sobel, Robert.The Age of Giant Corporations: A Microeconomic History of American Business, 1914–1970. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1972.ISBN 0-8371-6404-4.
• Roseberry, C.R.Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Flight. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1972.ISBN 0-8156-0264-2.
• Studer, Clara.Sky Storming Yankee: The Life of Glenn Curtiss. New York: Stackpole Sons, 1937.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCurtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.

• The Curtiss Company: U.S. Centennial of Flight Commemoration
• History of the Aerospace Industry in Buffalo, NY

• Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States
• History of Buffalo, New York
• Curtiss-Wright Company
• Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1916
• Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1929
• Manufacturing companies based in Buffalo, New York
• Defunct companies based in New York (state)
• Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of the United States
• Defunct helicopter manufacturers of the United States
• Curtiss aircraft engines
• 1929 mergers and acquisitions

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