September 2002
The Flight that Tamed the Skies
Glenn Curtiss's aeronautical innovations outlasted the Wright brothers'. But his biggest contribution to aviation was an Albany-Manhattan flight many deemed suicidal.
By Seth Shulman
Next year marks the centennial of flight-100 years since the December day in Kitty Hawk, NC, when the Wright brothers etched themselves so deeply into our collective consciousness. No doubt a good deal of hoopla will be whipped up about those two bicycle builders and their flight that changed America. But what the history books leave out is that the highly secretive Wright brothers refused to publicly demonstrate their airplane for four and a half years after that now legendary 12-second, 37-meter hop. By the time they revealed their machine, a number of other inventors already had airplanes flying.
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