Curtiss-Wright

By Kirk W. House

The oldest names in aviation joined forces in 1929, when Wright Aeronautical and Curtiss Aeroplane formed the giant Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Curtiss airplanes were already the best things with wings, while Charles Lawrance had made Wright powerplants the leader in American radial engines. Aviation founding father Glenn Curtiss, along with superstars Charles A. Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Admiral Byrd, and Wrong-Way Corrigan, all blazed skytrails with Wright engines and Curtiss wings. Tiny Sparrowhawk biplane fighters flew from airborne dirigibles. Huge factories poured out war birds in tens of thousands for World War II. Pilots flew them everywhere, from the African desert to Alaskan ice, South Sea islands, and even the Taj Mahal. Relive those days when women, old men, and teenagers kept the factories roaring, and follow Curtiss-Wright clear into the 21st century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 30, 2005
• ISBN: 9781439616338

Kirk W. House

Kirk W. House is the former director of the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. Charles R. Mitchell, a former photographer, is curator of the Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society in Penn Yan. Together they have authored a dozen books with Arcadia Publishing.

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INTRODUCTION

Few 20th century tales are more exciting than the lives of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, including the bitter legal disputes that consumed them for a decade. But the story is bigger than even these three very big men.

Wilbur Wright died in 1912, and Orville Wright severed connections with Wright Aeronautical during the First World War. At just about the same time, Glenn Curtiss sold controlling interest in his own company. While Curtiss remained active as a board member and as head of several subsidiary corporations, his main interests now lay elsewhere.

But their companies—each of which began with an 1890s bike shop—continued to grow. A 1929 Wall Street merger created the gigantic Curtiss-Wright Corporation, with interests in engines, airframes, airports, airlines, flight schools, flying services, research, development . . . every aspect of aeronautics. The Depression shook the company to its foundations, but company leaders soldiered on, making Curtiss-Wright a major component of America’s World War II arsenal of democracy.

And still Curtiss-Wright thrives, more than 75 years since the great merger, more than a century since three forward-looking young men went into business—and into dreaming—for themselves. Where Curtiss and the Wrights were once delighted to get off the ground at all, Curtiss-Wright now sails into space, under the sea, into combat, and all around the globe. If Curtiss and the Wrights were here today, they would be jostling for window seats.

In war and in peace, anywhere men and women could fly, Curtiss-Wright took them there.

One

THE BEST THINGS WITH WINGS

The oldest names in aviation came together in 1929 as the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation merged with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, both companies sweeping up numerous smaller firms in their wake. Curtiss-Wright was America’s second-biggest company, surpassed only by General Motors. Glenn Curtiss had vaulted to the forefront of America’s aviation business as early as 1909–1910, and though he was no longer at the company’s helm, Curtiss airplanes were still industry leaders. Curtiss-Wright, along with the rest of the world, was embarking on a wild ride that would take it from open-cockpit biplanes to sleek, advanced war birds in scarcely a single decade. The Depression would quickly dim grand dreams of a gigantic, full-service business covering every aspect of aviation. But for far too short a time, the Curtiss Condor II airliner, soaring above the Empire State Building, perfectly captured the Golden Age of flight.

Clement Keys of Curtiss along with Richard Hoyt at Wright Aeronautical engineered the merger. Keys headed up the new corporation.

Hoyt and Keys had already begun recreating their respective firms as conglomerates, so the merger was a logical next step. The symbolism on this celebratory plaque would probably be found odd