1878-1930 Larger Than Life

From 1878 to 1930, Hammondsport native Glenn Hammond Curtiss rose from a self-taught bicycle mechanic to national prominence as a pioneer aviator, the founder of the American aircraft industry, and the father of U.S. Naval Aviation. A man driven by speed, he began by building and racing bicycles and motorcycles, won dozens of competitions, and in 1907 set a world land speed record of 136 miles per hour. In 1908 he became one of the first people in America to build and fly a powered aircraft, and less than half a mile from here he conducted the first publicly announced and witnessed flight of an airplane in the United States. Curtiss later became the dominant figure in early American aviation and was responsible for many inventions and innovations, including the flying boat, which helped launch naval aviation.

Urbana, New York · United States