The North Island era: Birth of naval aviation

Glenn Curtiss' canoe plane experiments

Curtiss' first canoe plane (in picture) was a D2 "school machine" mounted to a canoe. Curtiss tested it in May and June of 1910 on Lake Keuka near his Hammondsport, New York motorcycle factory.

The plane never got off the water, but there is reason to believe Curtiss never intended it to. The canoe had a displacement hull, which is much harder to lift from the water than a planing hull. In addition, the extra weight of the canoe was more than the plane's 33 horsepower engine could lift. Curtiss might have been using the first canoe plane for water taxi tests only.

Curtiss built a second canoe machine in 1916, from a D8 model plane with an OXX 110 horsepower motor. Louis Casey's book, The Hammondsport Era, includes a photo of this later plane rising from the water..

Back to Curtiss' prior "hydroplane" experiments