Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born on May 21, 1878, in Hammondsport, New York, and died on July 23, 1930, in Buffalo, New York; he was buried on July 25, 1930, in Hammondsport. In 1907 he became known as the "Fastest Man on Earth," and by 1908 Hammondsport had become the center of American aerial activity. In 1909 he won the Gordon Bennett Trophy for speed at Rheims, France, and in 1910 he won a $10,000 prize for a flight from Albany to New York City and made the first take-off from a U.S. Navy ship. In 1911 he was issued Pilot's License No. 1, and the first U.S. Navy aeroplane was the Curtiss A-1. In 1912 he developed the flying boat, and in 1914 he rebuilt and tested Doctor Langley's Aerodrome. From 1915 to 1918, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was the largest manufacturer of aeroplanes in the U.S. In 1919 the Navy Curtiss NC-4 made the first Atlantic crossing by air, and in 1930 Curtiss made his last flight at the controls of a Curtiss Condor transport.