Before Glenn Curtiss had ever sat in an aeroplane, he was already the fastest man in the world. On 23 January 1907, he rode a V8-engined motorcycle of his own construction at 136.3 mph across a measured mile in Ormond Beach, Florida. It was the fastest a human being had ever moved under their own power. Motorcycles led him to engines. Engines led him to the Wright Brothers’ circle. And then, inevitably, to aeroplanes.

On 4 July 1908, at Hammondsport, New York, Curtiss flew his June Bug biplane more than a kilometre in a straight line — becoming the first official public flight in the United States, as certified by the Aero Club of America. The Wright Brothers had flown before him, but their early flights were private and unverified by sporting authorities. Curtiss collected the Scientific American Trophy that the Wrights had expected to win. It was the beginning of a bitter rivalry that would last for decades and fill American courtrooms.

In August 1909, at the Grande Semaine de l’Aviation at Reims — the world’s first great air meet — Curtiss won the Gordon Bennett Trophy for speed, averaging 47.65 mph over the course. He beat the best European pilots and established America as a serious aviation nation. That same year, he developed ailerons — hinged control surfaces on the wingtips — as an alternative to the Wrights’ wing-warping system. The Wrights sued him for patent infringement. The litigation lasted eleven years.

From Water to War

Curtiss’s greatest innovation came not in the air but on the water. On 26 January 1911, he took off from and landed on San Diego Bay in an aircraft fitted with floats — the world’s first practical seaplane. He then demonstrated the aircraft to the US Navy, landing alongside the USS Pennsylvania and being hoisted aboard. The Navy immediately understood what it had just seen: an aircraft that could operate from warships, from harbours, from any body of water. Naval aviation was born.

When America entered World War I, Curtiss aircraft — particularly the famous JN-4 “Jenny” trainer — equipped the US military’s aviation corps. Over 10,000 Jennies were built. They trained the pilots who flew in Europe. After the war, they became the aircraft of the barnstorming era — Bessie Coleman learned to fly in one. Curtiss died in 1930, aged 52, having transformed aviation from a curiosity into an industry. His legacy is everywhere: every seaplane, every naval aircraft, and every aircraft with ailerons owes something to the motorcycle racer from Hammondsport.