The AEA’s fourth effort was the Silver Dart, designed and piloted by John Alexander Douglas (J.A.D.) McCurdy. Made from steel tube, bamboo, friction tape, wire and wood, it was covered with silvery rubberized silk balloon-cloth, its propeller was carved from a solid block of wood, and it had no brakes. It was first test-flown in Hammondsport, NY, on 6 December 1908 and was then shipped to Dr. Bell’s summer home in Baddeck on 6 January 1909.
The Silver Dart was made principally of bamboo, ash, spruce, metal tubing, and wire cable. The wings were covered with silver-coloured, rubberized balloon cloth – hence the name Silver Dart.
Its engine was a Curtis V-8 water-cooled engine that probably put out no more than 35 or 40 horsepower at 1,600 rpm. It spun a 2.43 m-diameter (8’) propeller. The Silver Dart had its two-plane elevator mounted on the front – canard style. It was 3.65 m (12’) wide and made the aircraft sensitive around its pitch axis.
On February 23rd, 1909 it made history with McCurdy at the controls when it became the first controllable powered aircraft to fly in Canada. About two weeks later on March 10th 1909, McCurdy flew the aircraft on a 20-kilometer circular flight around Baddeck Bay.
The Silver Dart made about 30 flights in the Baddeck area before the AEA proposed a demonstration to the Canadian Army. The Army was not all that enthusiastic but did invite the AEA to Petawawa, ON. The sandy and hilly take-off and landing areas made getting off the ground very difficult. On their 5th demo flight – with Casey Baldwin on board as a passenger – McCurdy struck a rise in the ground and crash-landed (on August 2, 1909).

That was the end of the Silver Dart’s career after 50 flights.
Only four pieces of the original aircraft remain – the fuel tank and radiator in the Bell Museum in Baddeck, and the engine and propeller in the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa.

On 3 February 1959, Canada celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Silver Dart flight by flying a replica Silver Dart over the same ground, and J.A.D. McCurdy was made an Honourary Air Commodore.

Engine: 50hp Curtiss water-cooled V-8
Wing Span: 49 ft 1 inch (15 m)
Length: 39 ft 4 in (12 m)
Height: 9 ft 7 in (2.9 m)
Empty weight: 610 lb (277 kg)
Gross weight: 860 lb (360 kg)
Take off speed: 38 mph (61 km/h)
Cruise speed: 43 mph (69 km/h)
Ceiling: 70 ft

When in late 1907 the Scientific American had announced a magnificent silver trophy (it featured a world globe and a replica of Langley’s ill-fated Aerodrome) as an annual award for aviation competition, it went pretty much ignored by America’s relatively small fraternity of aeronauts until AEA decided to try for it. To this goal Curtiss’ “June Bug” design was dedicated.

The June Bug was one of the lightest of biplanes, having a wing spread of forty-two feet and an area of 370 square feet. The wings were transversely arched, being furthest apart at the center: an arrangement which has not been continued. It had a box tail, with a steering rudder of about six square feet area, above the tail. The horizontal rudder, in front, had a surface of twenty square feet. Four triangular ailerons were used for stability. The machine had a landing frame and wheels, and weighed, in operation, 650 pounds.

Coincidentally, aviation’s “dope” also originated here when plain varnish used to water-proof fabric coverings soon cracked with use and a more flexible replacement was created by AEA from a test mixture of paraffin, turpentine, and gasoline. Over the years that basic formula was much modified and improved, but June Bug had the first coat of actual dope. How they came to choose that word, which stems from the Dutch term “doop,” for a sauce or mixture, is not known.

The June Bug was a further refinement of White Wing, was sponsored by Curtiss and was more successful with the same 40 hp lightweight V-8 engine. First flown on 21 June, it made numerous flights, including a straight run of 1042m on the seventh flight. On 4 July1908, Curtiss made a pre-arranged flight to win the first task, or ‘leg’, of the Scientific American Trophy, which called for a straightaway flight of one kilometre. After a couple of false starts, he won this with ease by flying 1.6km at a speed of 62.76km/h in 1 minute 42.5 seconds.

The machine made several test flights from 450 to 3,420 feet, which Scientific American reported as the longest flights ever “publicly accomplished by a heavier-than-air flying machine in America at any accessible place.” (Hammondsport was likely more “accessible” to the magazine than was Huffman Prairie, Ohio, whence the Wrights had made flights in 1905 up to 24 miles over the heads of any public that cared to look up!)

However, on his eighth venture into the sky, and in the USA’s first officially-recorded “public flight,” Curtiss travelled 6,000 feet in 01m:42s at 39 mph to win the trophy on July 4, 1908. Yet, to dull the flush of victory, this event precipitated a letter from the Wright Brothers warning of patent infringement on their control system. Despite this legal snarl, AEA managed to get the aileron system patented in 1911, which was later transferred to Curtiss, and which would eventually lead to a full-blown court battle between the brothers and Curtiss that would drag on for years until the Wrights finally won.

In 1909 Curtiss exhibited intricate curved flights at Mineola, and circled Governor’s Island in New York harbor. In 1910 he made his famous flight from Albany to New York, stopping en route, as prearranged. At Atlantic City he flew fifty miles over salt water. A flight of seventy miles over Lake Erie was accomplished in September of the same year, the return trip being made the following day.

Curtiss fitted twin pontoons to his June Bug, renamed it Loon, and tested it in June 1909. It attained a surface speed of 27mph would not leave the water. During subsequent attempts it went out of control, sank in the shallows, and became frozen in the ice.

On January 26, 1911, Curtiss repeatedly ascended and descended, with the aid of hydroplanes, in San Diego Bay, California.

The June Bug was used by Curtiss for a total of 32 flights. It then crashed on 2 January 1909 and went into retirement.

Wingspan: 12.95 m / 42 ft 6 in
Wing area: 34.37 sq.m / 369.96 sq ft
Length: 8.4m / 27ft 6in
Take-off weight: 279 kg / 615 lb

The second AEA aeroplane was White Wing, sponsored by Canadian F.W Baldwin, jointly designed by Baldwin and Curtiss. It was similar to Red Wing, except for the substitution of three wheels for the ice runners, and used the same Glenn Curtiss built engine.

“White Wing,” as a biplane with front elevator and rear stabilizers and rudder connected by wires to a four-axis steering wheel, and a rudimentary aileron system controlled by body motions of the pilot. Its three-wheel, rubber-tired undercarriage was Curtiss’ idea, a carryover from sidecar motorcycles.

An innovation was the addition of movable lateral control surfaces on all four wingtips that later came to be called ailerons. In principle, these had the same effect as the Wright’s wing-warping, but Curtiss claimed mechanical and control differences. The method of control reflected Curtiss’s motorcyle experience – a yoke embracing the pilot’s shoulders. When he wanted to bank for a turn, he leaned in the desired direction and the proper control movement was automatically applied.

After many reassessments and revisions, White Wing made four flights, the first on 18 May, 1908, with Baldwin at the controls. The distance covered was 85m at a height of 3m. The third flight was the longest, at 310m with Glenn Curtiss flying. White Wing crashed on 23 May after McCurdy had flown 167m.

Take-off weight: 274 kg / 604 lb
Wingspan: 12.87 m / 42 ft 3 in
Wing area: 37.9 sq.m / 407.95 sq ft

The first aeroplane of the AEA was the White Wing, designed and sponsored by Lt Thomas.E. Selfridge.

Named for its red fabric coloring, Glenn Curtiss built the engines for the Aerial Experiment Association Red Wing and the White Wing early in 1908.

Dubbed “Red Wing” after its amber fabric sealant, and it was finished in three months at Curtiss’ shop at Hammondsport. Ready for a trial run on March 10, 1908, Selfridge and Bell were on business in Washington DC, so the honors were handed to Baldwin. Powered by a 20-hp Curtiss motorcycle engine, Red Wing ran across the ice on its steel skids for about 250 feet, then lurched into the air to fly about 300 more feet at an altitude of six feet before finally stalling and crumpling into a heap.

Having no lateral control, it crashed on its first flight at Lake Keuka NY on 12 March 1908 after flying a distance of 318’11” (p: Baldwin).

The first public flight of an airplane in the US.

Aerodrome #1, Red Wing
Engine: Curtiss B8 air-cooled V-8 40hp pusher. Actual flight efficiency est. less than 20hp.
Wingspan: 43’4″
Length: 26’3″
Useful load: 185 lb
Seats: 1