Flight of the June bug

Flight Journal, Aug 1998 by House, Kirk

After some initial reluctance, Curtiss agreed to join Bell's team, and the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was born. Selfridge summarized their goal: "to get into the air." Mrs. Bell, the unofficial sixth member, sold a house lot she owned in Washington, D.C., to fund the operation. Each man would take the lead in designing an aircraft, and the others would assist. With each aircraft, they would build on what had been learned from its predecessors.

Bell had a starting point-a tetrahedral kite "big as a house" at Baddeck. It might fly, but his younger colleagues apparently recognized from the start that it would never be practical. When the kite was wrecked in an unpowered test flight, it gave the younger men an excuse to move winter operations to Hammondsport, New York, in the Finger Lakes region. There, they would concentrate on aeroplanes, though not one of the five had actually laid eyes on one.

By March 1908, they were ready. Red Wing was built in the Curtiss plant with Selfridge as lead designers role he was awarded in recognition of his brush with death as pilot of Bell's kite. The new machine was a biplane with upper and lower wingtips angled toward each other. It had a 45hp, 145-pound Curtiss V-8 pusher engine. Red Wing, or Aerodrome no. 1, had a front elevator and a rear rudder, but there were no wing warpers or ailerons-no provision at all for lateral stability. It was equipped with skids, like the Wright aeroplanes, but the AEA had decided against assisted takeoffs such as the Wrights preferred.

"Bell's boys" created the aircraft carrier before they had even flown, perching Red Wing on the small steamer Springstead for a voyage to solid ice on Lake Keuka. Selfridge was away on Army busi ness in Washington, so Casey Baldwin got the nod and flew it 312 feet-making him, by most historical accounts, the first man outside the Wright camp to fly in the western hemisphere.

When Red Wing crashed on its second flight, the team turned to Aerodrome no. 2, White Wing, with Casey Baldwin taking the lead. This employed the engine from its predecessor, but incorporated two important new features. White Wing was the first airplane in America to use wheels; indeed, it pioneered the tricycle landing gear, apparently borrowed from a propeller-driven "wind wagon" invented earlier by Curtiss. It also had movable surfaces outboard of the wingtips-America's first ailerons, and the AEA's solution to lateral stability.

Ailerons were being used in Europe, and the Wright wing warp ing was a less efficient application of the same principle. The AEA "wingtips," as Bell forcefully stated, were an independent development and an important step in extending the airplane's practicality. The first attempts in May failed to get airborne until Bell realized that the fabric was too porous (they were learning everything from scratch). Doping solved the problem, and Baldwin flew again, followed by Selfridge, making the first powered flight by a U.S. military man. Curtiss celebrated his 30th birthday by making his first flight, with Selfridge elatedly reporting that the motorcycle man had steered both right and left with the airplane "in perfect control at all times."

Red Wing got them into the air; with White Wing, they were starting to fly; or they were until McCurdy took his turn. The Canadian had already taken a lot of ribbing for his habit of falling off motorcycles, and even needing crutches for a time. On May 23, he wrecked White Wing after flying 183 yards. Nothing was lost, however, as the Association had learned enough. They turned to Aerodrome no. 3.

To the casual eye, no. 3 was simply a modification of White Wing. The wing surface was reduced and the aileron surface increased. The frame and wheelbase were stretched a little, and a cloth windscreen was removed; lead designer Curtiss liked to see where he was going. He also rigged up a shoulder yoke and strap to engage the ailerons. The pilot would lean into a turn or away from an undesired dip, imitating the movements of a motorcycle operator. The movements were instinctive, and the results were elegant. They were also a simple transition for cycling experts. By mid-June, Aerodrome no. 3 was under a tent at Stony Brook

Farm, just south of Hammondsport, where vintner Harry Champlin had loaned his trotting-horse track. Curtiss drove Mrs. Malinda Bennit out to see his creation. In 1900, she had given the fatherless 22-year-old rent-free use of a small shop on the Hammondsport square. The Curtiss business had prospered, and he begged his old patron to name the new machine.

It must have been something of a letdown when the elderly widow protested that her old head wasn't up to the task. Dr. Bell stepped in and christened no. 3 June Bug. It may have looked much like White

Wing, but Curtiss, by his own testimony, had profited immensely from that single flight. Those seemingly minor improvements had dramatically increased performance. By June 21, Curtiss had made at least three flights, the longest being 1,266 feet at 34mph. It gratified AEA members and villagers that Mrs. Bell, recovering from an illness, was on hand for that eminently successful effort.