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.
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.