The Curtiss Autoplane, invented by
Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early a ...
in 1917, is widely considered the first attempt to build a
roadable aircraft
A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes u ...
.
[ Although the vehicle was capable of lifting off the ground, it never achieved full flight.][
]
Development and design
The Autoplane was a triplane
A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are.
Design principles
The triplane arrangement m ...
, using the wings from a Curtiss Model L trainer, with a small foreplane mounted on the aircraft's nose.[Bowers 1979, p. 75.] The Autoplane's aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
body resembled a Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...
and had three seats in an enclosed cabin, with the pilot/chauffeur sitting in the front seat and the two passengers side-by side to the rear.[ It used a four-blade ]pusher propeller
In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...
, and a twin-boom tail. A Curtiss OXX engine drove the propeller via shaft and belts.[ The aircraft had a four-wheel undercarriage, with the front two wheels being steerable. The wings and tail could be detached for use as an automobile.][Bowers 1979, p. 76.]New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in February 1917. It made a few short hops before the entry
Entry may refer to:
*Entry, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States
*Entry (cards), a term used in trick-taking card-games
*Entry (economics), a term in connection with markets
*Entry (film), ''Entry'' (film), a 2013 Indian ...
of the United States into World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in April 1917 ended development of the Autoplane.
Specifications
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*, patent filed February 14, 1917; issued February 18, 1919
{{Curtiss aircraft
Roadable aircraft
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Autoplane
1910s United States civil utility aircraft
Triplanes