Snapshot
May 21, 2012
Happy birthday, Glenn Hammond Curtiss. Born on May 21 in 1878, the motorcycle lover went on to become an early aviation pioneer, designing motors with Alexander Graham Bell for the Aeriel Experiment Association not long after the Wright brothers took their first flight in 1903. In 1908, he flew the first public flight of at least one kilometer, in a plane he designed, the June Bug, and the following year beat Frenchman Louis Bléroit in the first air race. Of course, that was just the beginning of Curtiss' career as an innovative aviator. Read more about his life at the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum's website, or download a PDF of his 1912 autobiography. In the photo above, from the National Air and Space Museum archives, Curtiss is sitting in an early pusher biplane he designed.
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