Glen Curtiss’ V8 Motorcycle Made Him Faster Than Airplanes In 1907

Born in 1878, Glen Curtiss spent his entire adulthood focusing on mobility and aviation. He made a name for himself by having done important work for the U.S. aircraft industry and as a motorcycling pioneer.

He started as a bike messenger for Western Union and was deeply in love with two-wheel racing. He became a bicycle shop owner in 1901. Shortly after, he began to manufacture his first motorcycles with an internal combustion engine. His keen interest and pure passion took him to international glory in just six years after opening his first business.

All it takes is courage

Curtiss decided that two pistons weren`t enough for a hugely impressive bike. He started working on some sketches in 1906 and just one year later had the frame ready for a massive 4.4-liter V8. As Kirk House points out in his book Hell-Rider to King of the Air, Glen Curtiss lived as a kind individual, and he was mostly shy and quiet but had this amazing talent on the mechanical side. Although uneducated, the American managed to jump across any kind of barriers and went on to remain in history as an inventor and a daredevil.

Before embarking on what was going to be the adventure of a lifetime, Curtiss wanted to do more research and spent some time at the Florida Speed Carnival. There he held some trials with a motorcycle he created for a business deal that he was hoping to close. He ended up racing one of his three motorcycles there and even surprised himself when the timekeeper told him a new record had been set. This gave him a lot of hope.

Hiding the V8-carrying motorcycle beforehand, he said enough, took it out in public, and went on to put it on the test bed – the shoreline of Ormond Beach. Authorities were not planning on letting him race the monster he created but allowed him to have a trial. And he ended up doing way more than that.

Inclining far forward, Curtiss was lying almost level on the bicycle, and canvassed the following mile in 26.4 seconds. He achieved a top speed of more than 136 mph (219 kph)! It took him another mile to convey the 40 HP motorcycle to a stop, according to The Guinness book of motorcycling facts and feats. Minutes after the fact he would discover that he had smashed the world speed record, turning him into the fastest man on earth. He was indeed faster than any means of human propulsion at the time. He was cited as saying that the whole experience “fulfilled” his “speed needing.”

Keep the momentum going

The news of his record reached even Alexander Graham Bell, who later invited Curtiss to develop a suitable engine for heavier-than-air flight experimentation. Bell regarded Curtiss as “the greatest motor expert in the country.”

Although what he had done was immensely impressive, Glen Curtiss had no plans to stop. He went on to become an engineer and an aviation pioneer. We owe him the first variant of a seaplane and the aileron invention; the latter being widely in use today.

After all of this honorable life’s work, he merged twelve companies (including that of the Wright brothers) and ended up being considered the Henry Ford of aviation. He even trained America's first woman pilot, Blanche Scott.

This didn’t happen without criticism, as some figures ended up calling him a morally corrupt man. The allegations were, however, never proven.

His unplanned motorcycle record wasn’t broken until 1930, when the contender only got 1 kph (0.62 mph) over Curtiss’ speed. His, as Curtiss called it, “eight-barrel bike” is now on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.