Dates

• Existence: 1916 - 1929

Historical Note: Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation

The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was an aviation company established by Glenn H. Curtiss in 1916 but had roots in earlier companies created by Curtiss.

Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an aviation pioneer who had worked with Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association in 1907-1909. While working with that group, he designed and built the "June Bug" biplane. When the association split up, he realized he had an aptitude for aircraft design and started the Herring-Curtiss Company with Augustus Moore Herring on March 20, 1909. A year later that company was bankrupt and Curtiss formed the Curtiss Aeroplane Company. It was based out of Hammondsport, New York.

In 1916 Curtiss Aeroplane Company merged with Curtiss’s motorcycle manufacturing business, Curtiss Motor Company to form the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Curtiss Aeroplane and Motors Ltd was its Canadian subsidiary under the direction of J.A.D. McCurdy. Burgess Company of Marblehead, Massachusetts also became a subsidiary in 1914, continuing to produce aircraft under the Burgess name.

With the beginning of World War I and an increase in military orders, the company moved its headquarters and facilities to Buffalo, New York. Additional production and flight training facilities were set up in Toronto, Ontario. The Curtiss Company was especially important to the U.S. Navy as a designer and manufacturer of “flying boats” and seaplanes. The first large order was for the Model F flying boat. Around the same time, they also developed the JN-4 biplane for the Army, which was also subsequently ordered in large quantities by the U.S. military and its allies. The company had 18,000 employees in Buffalo and 3,000 at its Hammondsport facility and by the end of the war the company was the largest aviation manufacturing company in the country. Because of the “patent wars” with Wright Company (and its successors, Wright-Martin and Wright Aeronautical) which had curtailed aircraft production in the U.S., the company was required by the government to participate in a patent pool in order to allow for increased production necessary during the war years.

In 1920, Glenn Curtiss retired to Florida continuing as a director for the company. Clement Keys gained control of the company at that time. After the war and into the 1920s the company tried to develop a commercial market but met with little success. However, Curtiss seaplanes performed successfully in several races: they won the Schneider Cup in 1923 and 1925 and a Pulitzer Trophy race in 1925. During the Great Depression the Curtiss Robin, a light transport plane, became a successful model with 769 being built, keeping the company afloat. Though military contracts were not once they had been, the company also developed new fighter planes and new engines.

In 1929, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company merged with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation.

Places

• Buffalo (N.Y.) (Residence)
• Hammondsport (N.Y.) (Residence)
• New York (State) (Residence)