The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in

Davidson, North Carolina Davidson is a suburban town located in northern Mecklenburg and Iredell counties, North Carolina, United States, on the banks of Lake Norman. It is a suburb in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The population was 10,944 at the 2010 census, and in ...

, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of

Curtiss Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decade ...

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright is ...

, and various supplier companies, the company was immediately the country's largest aviation firm and built more than 142,000 aircraft for the U.S. military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Today, it no longer makes aircraft but makes many related components, particularly

actuator An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve. In simple terms, it is a "mover". An actuator requires a control device (controlled by control signal) a ...

aircraft controls An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. C ...

valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

s, and surface-treatment services. It also supplies the commercial,

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

, and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

markets; it makes parts for commercial and

naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

nuclear power systems, industrial vehicles, and oil- and

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

-related machinery.

History

Merger and expansion

Curtiss-Wright formed on July 5, 1929, the result of a merger of 12 companies associated with

Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decades ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, and Wright Aeronautical of

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

. It was headquartered in

. With $75 million in capital (equivalent to $ billion in ), it became the largest aviation company in the United States. By September 1929, Curtiss-Wright had also acquired the Moth Aircraft Corporation and

Travel Air Manufacturing Company The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. History The company initially built a series of sporting and tr ...

Divisions

There were three main divisions: the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division, which manufactured

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...

s; the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, which produced

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...

s; and the Curtiss-Wright Propeller Division, which manufactured

propellers A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. After 1929, most engines produced by the new company were known as Wrights, while most aircraft were given the Curtiss name, with a few exceptions.

Pre-World War II

Throughout the 1930s, Curtiss-Wright designed and built aircraft for military, commercial, and private markets. But it was the Wright engine division and the longstanding relationship with the U.S. military that would help the company through the difficult years of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. In 1937, the company developed the P-36 fighter aircraft, resulting in the largest peacetime aircraft order ever given by the Army Air Corps. Curtiss-Wright also sold the P-36 abroad, where they were used in the early days of

War production

During

, Curtiss-Wright produced 142,840 aircraft engines, 146,468 electric propellers and 29,269 airplanes. Curtiss-Wright employed 180,000 workers, and ranked second among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts (behind only

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

Curtiss-Wright entrance Cladwell NJ 1941

Aircraft production included almost 14,000 P-40 fighters, made famous by their use by Claire Chennault's

Flying Tigers The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...

in China, over 3,000 C-46 Commando transport aircraft, and later in the war, over 7,000

SB2C Helldiver The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver is a dive bomber developed by Curtiss-Wright during World War II. As a carrier-based bomber with the United States Navy (USN), in Pacific theaters, it supplemented and replaced the Douglas SBD Dauntless. A few surv ...

s. Its most visible success came with the P-40, variously known as the Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, and Warhawk, which were built between 1940 and 1944 at the main production facilities in

. During the war, a second large plant was added at Buffalo, followed by new plants at

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

;

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

; and

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. Engine and propeller production was at plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In May 1942, the U.S. government assigned Curtiss-Wright a defense production factory for wartime aircraft construction at

, to produce the

C-76 Caravan The Curtiss-Wright C-76 Caravan (company designation CW-27) was an American all-wood military transport aircraft. The C-76 was intended as a substitute standard aircraft in the event of expected wartime shortages of light alloys.Dreher, Carl, ...

cargo plane, which was constructed mostly of wood, a non-priority war material. However, after difficulties with the C-76 (including a crash of a production model in mid-1943), as well as the realization that sufficient quantities of aluminum aircraft alloys would be available for war production, plans for large-scale C-76 production were rejected. The Louisville plant was converted to C-46 Commando production, eventually delivering 438 Commandos to supplement the roughly 2,500 C-46s produced at Buffalo. The C-46 cargo plane was fitted with two powerful radial engines and could carry more cargo at higher altitudes than any other Allied aircraft. Consequently, it was used extensively in the China-Burma-India Theater.

Defective engines sold to U.S. military in World War II

From 1941 to 1943, the Curtiss Aeronautical plant in

Lockland, Ohio Lockland is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,449 at the 2010 United States Census. Lockland is located in southwest Ohio, north of Cincinnati. Its population has declined since the latter part of the 20th cen ...

, produced aircraft engines under wartime contract destined for installation in

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

aircraft.Meyers, Jeffrey, ''The Genius and the Goddess: Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe'', University of Illinois Press, (2009), pp. 92–93Clausen, Henry C., and Lee, Bruce, ''Pearl Harbor: Final Judgment'', Da Capo Press, (2001), pp. 56–58 Wright officials at Lockland insisted on high engine production levels, resulting in a significant percentage of engines that did not meet Army Air Forces (AAF) inspection standards. These defective engines were nevertheless approved by inspectors for shipment and installation in U.S. military aircraft. After investigation, it was later revealed that Wright company officials at Lockland had conspired with civilian technical advisers and Army inspection officers to approve substandard or defective aircraft engines for military use. Army Air Forces technical adviser Charles W. Bond was dismissed by the Army in 1943 for "gross irregularities in inspection procedure."''Colonel Ready To Deny Neglect'', The Toledo Blade, 20 April 1944, p. 2 Bond would later testify that he had been "wined and dined" by Wright company officials; one of those occasions was the night before Bond fired four AAF engine inspectors another AAF inspector had described as "troublemakers." In 1944, three Army officers, Lt. Col. Frank Constantine Greulich of Detroit, former chief inspection officer for the material command, Major Walter A. Ryan of Detroit, former central states inspection officer, and Major William Bruckmann, a former Cincinnati brewer and resident Army inspections officer at the Wright plant in Lockland were charged with neglect of duty, conspiracy, and giving false testimony in a general court martial.Hinton, Harold B., ''Air Victory: the men and the machines'', New York: Harper & Bros. (1948), pp. 249–251''Three Air Officers 'Guilty of Neglect', Ordered Dismissed'', The Milwaukee Journal, 26 April 1944, p. 33 All three men were later convicted of neglect of duty. The story of defective engines had reached investigators working for Sen. Harry Truman's congressional investigative board, the

Truman Commission The Truman Committee, formally known as the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, was a United States Congressional investigative body, headed by Senator Harry S. Truman. The bipartisan special committee was form ...

, after several Wright aircraft assembly workers informed on the company; they would later testify under oath before Congress. Arthur Miller's play ''

All My Sons ''All My Sons'' is a three-act play written in 1946 by Arthur Miller. It opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1949, and ran for 328 performances. It was directed by Elia Kazan (t ...

'' is based on this incident.

Post–World War II

Demise of aircraft production

Curtiss-Wright failed to make the transition to design and production of

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines. Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, je ...

, despite several attempts. During the war, the company had expended only small amounts on aircraft research and development, instead concentrating on incremental improvements in conventional aircraft already in wartime production. This was especially true in the first two years of the war. Curtiss' failure to research and develop more advanced wing and airframe designs provided an opening for

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

, Bell, Lockheed, Northrop, and other U.S. aircraft manufacturers to submit newer and more advanced aircraft designs. The P-60, the firm's last prop-driven fighter design, was merely an extrapolation of its 1930s

P-36 Hawk The Curtiss P-36 Hawk, also known as the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, is an American-designed and built fighter aircraft of the 1930s and 40s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, it was one of the first of a new generatio ...

, offering no advantage over other designs already in service. With the rapid development of jet engine technology and near-supersonic flight, this technological lag resulted in Curtiss losing a number of critical postwar military aircraft orders. The final nail in the coffin was the choice of the

Northrop F-89 Scorpion The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was an American all-weather, twin-engined interceptor aircraft built during the 1950s, the first jet-powered aircraft designed for that role from the outset to enter service. Though its straight wings limited its per ...

over the XF-87 Blackhawk; after the F-87 was cancelled October 10, 1948, Curtiss-Wright shut down its entire Aeroplane Division and sold the assets to

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F ...

Flight research

While this marked Curtiss-Wright's departure from preeminence in the aviation industry, one notable spin-off involved Curtiss-Wright's flight research laboratory, founded in 1943 near the main plant at the Buffalo airport. During divestiture of the airframe division, the lab was given to

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

along with a cash gift to finish the construction of a transonic wind tunnel. Cornell Aeronautical Labs, or CAL as it was known, was eventually spun off from the university as a private company,

Calspan Corporation Calspan Corporation is a science and technology company founded in 1943 as part of the Research Laboratory of the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division at Buffalo, New York. Calspan consists of four primary operating units: Flight Research, Transportati ...

, which has been responsible for many subsequent innovations in flight and safety research.

Engine development

After the government gave the development of the

Whittle Whittle may refer to: Crafts *Whittling, the carving of wood with a knife People * Whittle (name), a surname, and a list of people with the name Places * Whittle, Kentucky * Whittle, Derbyshire, a hamlet near Glossop, Derbyshire, United Kingdom ...

jet engine to GE, the company concentrated on reciprocating engines and propeller production for military transport and civilian airliners. With the approaching twilight of the big piston aircraft engine, Curtiss-Wright needed new design inspiration. in 1950, Curtiss-Wright licensed the

Sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphir ...

jet engine from Armstrong Siddeley in the U.K and manufactured it as the

Wright J65 The Wright J65 was an axial-flow turbojet engine produced by Curtiss-Wright under license from Armstrong Siddeley. A development of the Sapphire, the J65 powered a number of US designs. Design and development Curtiss-Wright purchased a license f ...

. It powered models of the

Martin B-57 The Martin B-57 Canberra is an American-built, twin-engined tactical bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1953. The B-57 is a license-built version of the British English Electric ...

, and several other U.S. fighter planes. Subsequent derivative engines were late and did not find substantial markets. For a brief time, Curtiss-Wright licensed rights to the

Wankel rotary engine The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and designed by German engineer Hanns-Dieter Paschke. T ...

from NSU in 1958 as a possible aircraft power plant. For this major innovative engineering project, Curtiss-Wright relied extensively on the design leadership of NSU-Wankel engineer

Max Bentele Max Bentele (January 15, 1909 – May 19, 2006) was a German-born pioneer in the field of jet aircraft turbines and mechanical engineering. His contributions to the development of the Wankel engine earned him the title, "Father of the Wankel Engi ...

Flight simulators

In 1954, United Airlines bought four Curtiss-Wright flight simulators at a cost of $3 million. These simulators were like earlier ones produced in the late 1940s for airliners with the addition of visuals, sound, and movement. They were the first of today's modern flight simulators for commercial aircraft. curtiss travel air cw-12q g-aaok arp

Business diversification

In 1956, financially strapped automaker

Studebaker-Packard Corporation The Studebaker-Packard Corporation was the entity created in 1954 by the purchase of the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan. While Studebaker was the larger of the two companies, P ...

entered into a management agreement with Curtiss-Wright as a means for the nation's fifth-largest automobile manufacturer to avoid insolvency. The relationship lasted until 1959 at which time Curtiss-Wright withdrew from the agreement. The shift of civilian aircraft to jets left the company with little of its old business, and during the 1960s it shifted to components for aircraft and other types of equipment, such as nuclear

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s, a business that is still being conducted today. In 2002, Curtiss-Wright acquired Penny & Giles, a supplier of black boxes and sensing devices (Hybrid linear, hybrid rotary, and VRVT sensors). In 2003, Curtiss-Wright acquired Systran Corporation, a supplier of highly specialized, high-performance data communications products for real-time systems, primarily for the aerospace and defense, industrial automation and medical image markets. The acquisition also reintroduced Curtiss-Wright to Dayton, Ohio. In 2010, Curtiss-Wright acquired

Hybricon Corporation Hybricon Corporation is a provider of systems packaging serving the military, aerospace, homeland security, medical and high-end Industrial markets and develops embedded computing systems using OpenVPX, VPX, VXS, VMEbus, VME64X, CompactPCI, rugged ...

for $19 million in cash. Hybricon is a supplier of electronic packaging for the aerospace, defense and commercial markets, and provides electronic subsystem integration. In 2011, Curtiss-Wright acquired Ireland-based Acra Control for $61 million in cash. Acra Control is a supplier of data acquisition systems and networks, data recorders and telemetry ground stations for both defense and commercial aerospace markets. At the beginning of 2013, Curtiss-Wright acquired Exlar Corporation for $85 million in cash. Exlar, a private company, is a designer and manufacturer of highly engineered electric actuators used in motion control solutions in industrial and military markets. The acquired business will operate within Curtiss-Wright's Motion Control segment. In October 2013, Curtiss-Wright completed the acquisition of the Parvus Corporation, a business unit of Eurotech S.p.A., for $38 million. Parvus is a leading designer and manufacturer of rugged small form factor computers and communications subsystems for the aerospace, defense, homeland security and industrial markets. Curtiss-Wright acquired military communications equipment supplier Pacific Star Communications for 400 million, on November 2, 2020.

Multinational divisions

As of 31 December 2012, the firm had several divisions: *Curtiss Wright Controls (UK) Ltd, United Kingdom *Curtiss-Wright Antriebstechnik GmbH, Switzerland *Curtiss-Wright Controls Electronic Systems Inc., California *Curtiss-Wright Controls Integrated Sensing Inc., Delaware *Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc., Delaware *Curtiss-Wright Electro-Mechanical Corporation, Delaware *Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Company Canada, Nova Scotia *Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corporation, New York *Dy4 Inc, Delaware *Dy4 Systems Inc., Ontario : a manufacturer of electronic circuit boards acquired in 2003 *Indal Technologies Inc., Canada *Metal Improvement Company LLC, Delaware *Novatronics Inc., Ontario *Peerless Instrument Co. Inc., New York *Penny & Giles Controls Limited, United Kingdom *Primagraphics (Holdings) Limited, United Kingdom *Tapco International Inc, Delaware

Products

Aircraft

Curtiss Electric propellers

As well as manufacturing engines, a range of electrically actuated constant speed three- and four-bladed propellers were manufactured under the name ''Curtiss Electric''.

Albert Kahn

Albert Kahn Associates designed several industrial buildings for the Curtiss Wright Corporation, including plants in Beaver, PA; Buffalo, NY; Caldwell, NJ; Columbus, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Kenmore, NY; Louisville, KY and St. Louis, MO. Albert Kahn's personal working library, th
Albert Kahn Library Collection
is housed at

Lawrence Technological University Lawrence Technological University (LTU) (Lawrence Tech) is a private university in Southfield, Michigan. It was founded in 1932 in Highland Park, Michigan, as the Lawrence Institute of Technology (LIT) by Russell E. Lawrence. The university move ...

in Southfield, Michigan.

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Bowers, Peter M. ''Curtiss Aircraft 1907–1947''. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1979. . *Eltscher, Louis R. and Young, Edward M. ''Curtiss-WrightGreatness and Decline''. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998. . *

External links

*
Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions websiteCurtiss-Wright Flow Control websiteCurtiss-Wright Industrial websiteCurtiss-Wright Sensors & Controls websiteCurtiss-Wright Surface Technologies website
* ttp://buffaloah.com/h/aero/aero.html History of the Aerospace Industry in Buffalo, NYbr>1940 Curtiss Wright Buffalo NY Handbook – Internet Archive
{{authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Aircraft manufacturers of the United States Aircraft engine manufacturers of the United States Wright brothers Manufacturing companies based in North Carolina Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina Engineering companies of the United States Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Manufacturing companies established in 1929 1929 establishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1929 Company articles with out of date infobox information