The Curtiss Autoplane offered limousine luxury in its aluminium bodied ‘car’: comfortable leather seats for an aerial chauffeur and two passengers, tasteful trimming in plush brocade, tapestries, even velvet drapes for the celluloid windows. Exactly how its triplane wings and outrigger mounted tail unit detached for road use is not clear, but with a mass of rigging wires needing careful adjustment it can scarcely have been an easy or quick process. The 100 hp Curtiss OXX engine drove a four blade pusher propeller by means of a shaft and chain mechanism. A clutch took care of power transmission to the road wheels.
The Curtiss Autoplane was ceremonially unveiled at the New York Pan American Aeronautical Exposition in Grand Central Palace, New York, on 8 February 1917.The machine only flew once or twice from the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station at Newport, Rhode Island, before America’s entry into World War I intervened and curtailed further development in favour of weapons of war.
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