The Glenn Curtiss Legacy

 A Look at  an Enormous Legacy

Glenn Hammond Curtiss accomplished so much and gave so much to the world that it would seem logical to just list his achievements.There are some who have tried, but the lists keep growing, and I am learning more all the time. His life was relatively short, and I grieve, thinking of what more he might have done. Even so, his inventions, innovations, and contributions to aviation and his communities seem unbelievable. How could one man do so much? It's really time for all of America to appreciate one of its greatest heroes.

The Curtiss Mansion in Miami Springs, Florida

When Glenn Curtiss more or less retired from aviation about 1920, he cashed in his aviation interests, and he and the family moved to the area of Miami, Florida. I say "and the family," because wherever Glenn and his wife Lena moved, a good deal of the extended family followed. In Miami Springs in 1925, he had a large mansion built for his nuclear family, Lena, himself. and Glenn, Jr.  Lena's mother lived with them. There was also a mansion built for Glenn's half brother, G. Carl Adams.

 But Glenn built two mansions for his mother, Lua, my first cousin three generations removed. Lua wasn't pleased with the first one.  I love the stories about Lua, because of her assertiveness. She was a modern woman. She wasn't about to settle for a mansion that was planned for her; she wanted one that fit "her life style" as an artist. The second one had north facing windows. There she, her sister Kate, and her daughter, Rutha, painted and taught art.

Glenn's generosities were like ripples reaching out through time to family members, as well as the communities he lived in, such as Hammondsport, NY; the San Diego, CA, area, Coronado, and North Island; and southern Florida. They enriched even us cousins, more distant, two generations removed.

He helped out his musical prodigy cousin, Joy (his only first cousin on my side), by paying for excellent violin lessons (so goes the family lore) and buying her violins. Not "Strads," but not just any violins, either. In San Diego, I am told, she became first violinist for the San Diego symphony orchestra. She also composed music.

Joy Babcock, Glenn Curtiss's first cousin. Her mother was Mae Andrews Babcock, Lua Andrews Curtiss's sister (Glenn's mother). She was a prodigy, and Glenn helped her with her musical education. 
 (copyright: Glenn Curtiss family and truthinaviationhistory)

Joy and her mother Mae painted, as well as Mae's two sisters Lua and Kate and Joy's first cousin, Glenn's sister, Rutha Luella. I still have some of the art supplies and books that helped me through school that had belonged to Joy and probably her mother, Curtiss's Aunt Mae Babcock.( Mae was a recipient of a trust fund when Glenn died). I have taught piano on Joy's old "second" piano that I own now. The first was, of course, a baby grand and went to our cousin, Lynn, who was one of her violin students. We cousins have some pretty wonderful LP record collections that belonged to Joy. They introduced me to the great violin concertos.

The Curtiss family mansion has been fairly recently renovated by a dedicated group of people around the Miami Springs, Florida, area and put to good use for the community of Miami Springs. I believe Curtiss would have been immensely pleased.

For a more general idea of Curtiss's generosity, see below a list that demonstrates some of his activities in the Miami area. This one was compiled for the Curtiss Mansion website and includes a number of the contributions he made to communities in south Florida, after he relocated there until his premature death at age 52  Glenn Curtiss did not squander his fortune, as he has been wrongfully accused.

Glenn Hammond Curtiss

Founded Florida cities of Opa-locka, Hialeah and Miami Springs

Established 12,000-acre Curtiss Bright Ranch with partner, James Bright, and introduced cattle breeds and grasses adaptable to Florida climate

Invented the airboat for better transportation for Seminole (Indian) friends

Platted 52 subdivisions in Dade County

Established Miami's 1st aviation school that led to Miami's 1st airport at Braddock’s Corners (NW 17 Ave and 20 St)

Started Miami Film Studios in Hialeah

Opened Miami Kennel Club, second US dog track

Built Miami Jockey Club, later Hialeah Race Track

Introduced Jai-Alai to Miami and built fronton
79th Street Causeway in 1928, before
other causeways to access Hialeah Race
Track, leading to the growth and development
of north east Miami

Donated 6 miles of right-of-way for
extension of Seaboard Air Line Railroad

Donated 2 miles right-of-way for FEC
Railroad Belt Line, so trains could bypass
downtown Miami

Founding donor of University of Miami and
received honorary doctorate

Opened Aerocar Manufacturing Company
in Opa-locka

Built the Pan American Exhibition Center
to promote tropical agriculture

Built the Florida Aviation Camp in Opa-locka

Started Hialeah Press

Opened golf course in Miami Springs, South
Florida’s oldest municipal course

Opened first state-chartered bank in Dade County

Deeded Miami Springs and Opa-locka golf
courses to City of Miami so underground
wells could supply adequate water for
continued growth

Helped create Miami City National Bank to foster
development

Appointed to Florida Drainage Board and Okeechobee
Flood Control District

Along with Cuban investors, formed Aerovias Curtiss-
Cubana (now Cubana)

Honorary Greater Miami Airports Association
(GMAA) president, prompted establishing Miami's
Aviation Department to administer 160-acre Hialeah
field Curtiss donated

The Curtiss Florida years totaled about ten until Glenn's death in 1930. He was still inventing, innovating, and enjoying his remarkable number of interests and avocations--archery, golf, hunting, and motorcars, to name a few, when an embolism from an appendicitis operation took his life.

More and more unbiased researchers, not connected with the National Air and Space Museum, whose blatantly obvious bias is the Wight brothers and anti-Curtiss, are discovering Glenn Hammond Curtiss. Some of the best new sites on the net have to do with his contributions and inventions, not just in aviation, which were enormous, but in other fields, like motorcycles or his Aero Car. (This will link you to a large site with much information about Curtiss's life and work.)

For a fresh look at the Wright brothers and analyses of the present biased history, please see truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com

Glenn H. Curtiss. Intrepid Inventor

Photo from Long Island Technology Hall of Fame

Glenn Hammond Curtiss was a man whose inventive genius, and truly astonishing life, deserve to be documented in every American history book next to that of Thomas Alva Edison  and Alexander Graham Bell. Why aren't they? When I began to research my cousin's life, I began to find some very clear answers. Clear, at least, to me.

It isn't any wonder.

Probably no aviation pioneer was more vilified than Glenn Curtiss during his lifetime, and the smears continued for the eighty four years after his death. They continue today. The accusations are understandable when you consider their origins.They can be traced to the obsessive hatred by his two rivals, who claimed he had stolen from them their inventions, their due honor, their wealth, and in the case of Wilbur, his life. They launched an intensive campaign against his character. If they couldn't assassinate him in fact, they could do so verbally. Indeed, I consider very few a match for the Wright's genius in the verbal category. It's what they did best. Like great lawyers, they could take the facts and twist them to serve their purposes, and they were very convincing.

Considering the source, none of the accusations against Curtiss hold much validity when viewed in the light of reason. Glenn Curtiss was not secretive. There is no doubt what he did. His accomplishments were right out in the open with credible and verifiable witnesses. The only occasions we see him accused of being a liar are when the Wright brothers needed to prove, for instance, that he stole his expertise from them, as in a meeting in 1906. What they shared was their word against his. However, the Wrights were secretive, and we have clear examples of their playing with the truth to their advantage. See truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com.

From the time he was a child, Curtiss had a seemingly easy, natural genius for inventing. See "The Boy Who Fixed Things" in Boys' Life. Inventors ran in the family. Both of  Curtiss's gggrandparents Esther and Jabez Bradley were cousins of Charles Goodyear, the inventor of vulcanized rubber.   (Esther's mother was born a Goodyear.) His mother's first cousin, Charles Hazor Smith, an inventor his whole life, is credited with important innovations on the "Aladdin lamp." There were other inventors, as well, such as Charles' son, Hazor Judson Smith, who is credited with inventing the first ice-less refrigerator.

When Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell's group, nicknamed "Bell's Boys," developed a practical airplane in a matter of months in 1907 and 1908,  Curtiss became the object of jealousy, accusations, and insinuations by the Wrights.  They said that he had to have stolen their secrets, because his "June Bug" flew July 4, 1908, in the glaring light of official witnesses and publicity--before the Wrights could even debut with their flyer in August and September. He stole their thunder.

Photo from the GlennhCurtissmuseum.org website.

In a sense, Curtiss became the Wrights' nemesis, but only because of their inability to break loose from their apparent desire to destroy him. It is said that hatred is destructive of the one who does the hating. In the final analysis, they couldn't compete with Curtiss during his lifetime. His planes continued to improve, theirs became failures.The Wrights won against him in the courts, but the reasons they won are a story in itself and might not be considered legitimate today.

After January, 1914, when Curtiss lost his final appeal against the Wright-biased courts, Orville didn't stop; he intensified his seemingly "monomaniacal" campaign of propaganda. Curtiss's reconstruction of Professor Langley's 1903 aerodrome provided even more fuel in the spring of 1914.The attacks against Curtiss continued following his death in 1930, age 52, after which aviation progressed mightily, and people began to forget his earlier contributions. Orville, as designated "first to fly," took advantage of the additional decades he lived to try Curtiss in the court of public opinion, calling him a "liar" and a "thief." America's own Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, staffed by true Wright "believers," has joined the Wrights in their campaigns. A key to their attacks is the implication that the Langley aerodrome couldn't have flown without the modifications that Curtiss made to it when he reconstructed it. Another key is when they simply state it was "heavily modified," implying the same thing.The truth of this story is much more complex--as such stories usually are..

The American people deserve better, especially from their premier scientific institutions. I believe there are still people who are willing to entertain the truth of the manipulated stories--our educated aviators, unbiased historians, American citizens, and the people of the world.

(Below) Glenn Curtiss, left, and Henry Ford with one of Curtiss's beautifully crafted flying boats. Curtiss is credited with its invention. Ford offered Curtiss the services of his attorney against the Wright lawsuits.

  

Glenn H. Curtiss, Hero of Aviation

                                             

Glenn Curtiss making the first preannounced public flight in America, July 4, 1908

Glenn H. Curtiss

Twentieth Century American Genius

and Hero of Aviation

Glenn Curtiss, 1909, Rheims, France, 
 where he won the First International Aviation Competition

Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an American pioneer of aviation. He was a hero we can all be truly proud of.

In his relatively short lifetime, his achievements in the first part of the twentieth century, not only in aviation, but in other fields as well, were positively amazing.  Like David prevailing against Goliath, he stood up against some of the most powerful moguls of wealth in the United States, the then owners of the Wright Company. His determination prevented the infant aviation industry in America from being totally strangled by the throat hold the Wright brothers had on its development with their "bogus"* glider patent and their lawsuits. Curtiss continued to invent, to innovate, to produce, even though they were constantly dragging him into the courts.

He became"the Father of Naval Aviation" when the Wright Brothers were trying to beat him down. He became the father of our country's aviation industry when the Wrights were maligning him. His plane, the beloved "Jenny," trained more pilots than any other; and the Curtiss airplane factories, during World War I, produced more planes than any other. He developed aviation in this country to the point that it could take off on its own. 

Glenn Curtiss was the first to make a preannounced public flight in America. Before he virtually retired from aviation only eleven years later, his great flying boat, the NC-4, became the first plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The  NC-4 (Navy Curtiss-4), 1919, the first plane to fly across the Atlantic. For its scale, note the pilots to the left of the "4"

*The adjective "bogus" was used to describe the Wrights' patent by author Jack Carpenter, who dedicated the last years of his life towards restoring Glenn Curtiss to his proper place in history;

To be continued...

Note: For compelling reading by this author, please see truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com