The New York native owned a business that manufactured bicycles and engines, and in 1907 he broke a land speed record by reaching 136 miles per hour on a V8 motorcycle.
Daredevil Glenn Curtiss was already the “fastest man on earth” before he ever piloted an airplane. The New York native owned a business that manufactured bicycles and engines, and in 1907 he broke a land speed record by reaching 136 miles per hour on a V8 motorcycle. That same year, he joined the newly formed Aerial Experiment Association and began putting his engines on early airplanes. A kilometer-long flight in 1908 established Curtiss as one of the Wright Brothers’ main rivals, and he went on to make history in 1910 by piloting a plane called the “Hudson Flyer” 151 miles from Albany to Manhattan—a new distance record.