The Wright brothers were the first aviators to successfully fly an airplane that could sustain controlled flight, but there were many competitors who were very close to achieving that goal. One of those was Glenn Curtiss. While trying to avoid the Wright's patent on wing warping, he came up with other innovations that contributed to improving on the technology of the Wrights airplane as a historical footnote. He introduced the use of a steering wheel on a stick, the control device still in use today. Although the Wright's first flew in 1902, by the time of WWI, there were no Wright airplanes in the conflict, but 10,000 Curtiss Jennies were supplied to the Allies.
Curtiss built a seaplane in 1911. The seaplane was a regular Curtiss pusher airplane, with a central pontoon and wing tip floats. The pilot sat in a tricycle framework, in front of and below the wings. Early versions had a 25 hp 4 cylinder engine, and later versions had a 50 hp 8 cylinder engine. The seaplane was first flown in 1911, the same year the patent was filed. It issued 11 years later, in 1922!! You think the patent office is slow now, this took 11 years to issue.
The seaplane is definitely one of the great innovations ever brought to an airplane. The ability of the plane to land both on land and water gave it wider access to different terrains,locales and places. It also became the precedent of other airplane modifications.
Posted by: aircraft lease | January 15, 2009 at 04:01 AM