Knowing of the Wright Brothers' success with airplanes, Curtiss wrote to the brothers in May, 1906, to see if they might have an interest in buying one of his engines. He also met them in August, but the fiercely independent Wrights still had no interest in making a purchase.
Although Curtiss failed to win over the Wrights, at this time another inventor succeeded in making aviation history. For a few years, the Brazilian-born balloonist Alberto Santos-Dumont had been experimenting in France with heavier-than-air flight. After testing various designs, he eventually built and flew an airplane called the Quatorze-Bis, which was designed like a large box kite. For a November flight of over 700 feet, he won the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for the first public, heavier-than-air, powered flight in Europe.
Back in the United States, the next year, 1907, was a very busy time for Curtiss. In January, for example, he rode the world’s first V-8 motorcycle to a speed of 136 miles per hour in Ormond Beach, Florida. Having driven the cycle faster than even the typical locomotive of the day, he became known as “the fastest man on earth.” In June, he flew over Hammondsport in a Thomas Baldwin dirigible powered by a Curtiss engine. This was the very first time that Curtiss went aloft in any sort of aircraft. After alighting from the craft, he was now so interested in human flight that he soon started planning how to make the dirigible fly faster.
Knowing of the Wright Brothers' success with airplanes, Curtiss wrote to the brothers in May, 1906, to see if they might have an interest in buying one of his engines. He also met them in August, but the fiercely independent Wrights still had no interest in making a purchase.
Although Curtiss failed to win over the Wrights, at this time another inventor succeeded in making aviation history. For a few years, the Brazilian-born balloonist Alberto Santos-Dumont had been experimenting in France with heavier-than-air flight. After testing various designs, he eventually built and flew an airplane called the Quatorze-Bis, which was designed like a large box kite. For a November flight of over 700 feet, he won the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for the first public, heavier-than-air, powered flight in Europe.
Back in the United States, the next year, 1907, was a very busy time for Curtiss. In January, for example, he rode the world’s first V-8 motorcycle to a speed of 136 miles per hour in Ormond Beach, Florida. Having driven the cycle faster than even the typical locomotive of the day, he became known as “the fastest man on earth.” In June, he flew over Hammondsport in a Thomas Baldwin dirigible powered by a Curtiss engine. This was the very first time that Curtiss went aloft in any sort of aircraft. After alighting from the craft, he was now so interested in human flight that he soon started planning how to make the dirigible fly faster.
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