01/11/2026
On This Date: It was on January 10, 1912 when Hammondsport, NY inventor Glenn Curtiss conducted a critical test of his “flying boat”, his Curtiss Model E, in San Diego. While the test was unsuccessful (it struggled to get off the water), it galvanized Curtiss’s vision of a seaplane and later that year in July on Keuka Lake, Curtiss successfully flew his “flying boat” and the rest was history. With World War I approaching, Curtiss developed these aircraft for the United States and its allies. Considered the Father of Naval Aviation, as well as the founder and driving force of the American Aircraft industry, Glenn Curtiss’s life and achievements are celebrated and preserved at the wonderful Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport (bottom image). This is a must-see treasure in the Finger Lakes Region, where the legacy of one of the great minds in American history lives on.
