Curtiss Aviation Book

This is the firsthand account from the man who helped birth American aviation. Glenn Curtiss, the first American to earn a pilot's license and the creator of the machines that would define World War I's air battles, here recounts his earliest flights at the small New York town of Hammondsport where everything began. The book captures a moment when flight seemed impossible one year and absolutely certain the next. Curtiss details his record-breaking 147-mile journey from Albany to New York in 1910, which won him permanent possession of the Scientific American Trophy, and his pioneering work developing hydroplanes that would transform naval warfare. Written in 1912 with fellow aviator Augustus Post, this is more than nostalgia. It is a window into the audacious infancy of an industry that would soon reshape global conflict and commerce. For anyone curious about where flight began and who had the courage to climb into those rickety machines, Curtiss's own words are the closest thing to being there.