JFS Films, LLC
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JFS Films, LLC
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The Great Patent War Contrary to popular belief, the summer of 2008 marks the true completion of the first century of flight. Surely, Wilbur and Orville Wright made their historic first flight in 1903, but their fear of revealing the secrets of their innovative ‘flying machine’ made them loath to stage public exhibitions. America would have to wait another five years to witness the spectacle of heavier-than-air flight in a man-made flying machine.
The feat made headlines across the country and earned Curtiss the Scientific American trophy for the first officially sanctioned flight of one kilometer in the United States. Since most Americans had not heard of the Wright brothers up to this point, Glenn Curtiss was now widely recognized as the first American to fly.
Their first action was to write to Curtiss and the AEA reminding them of the patent they held on ‘wing-warping’ and lateral stability for flight. The AEA had seen the Wrights’ patent, but Bell was careful to keep clear of its claims for fear of infringement. Bell had more than his share of patent headaches from his battles for the telephone and wanted no part in another case. Then the brothers made history. A month after Curtiss’ stunt, during a sales trip to Europe, Wilbur took to the skies of France. The Europeans were in awe. Defeated, they finally acknowledged the Wrights were well ahead of them. In September, Orville made an equally spectacular demonstration for the US Army at Fort Meyer, Virginia. The flights proved the Wrights were very much in the lead, but the competition was gaining on them with each passing month. These extraordinary events not only illustrate how aviation came into its own in 1908, but also set the stage for the looming animosity the community would endure until the outbreak of Word War I. The Wright brothers’ remarkable zeal to dominate the nascent aviation industry would hold back other American aviators, but not Bell & Curtiss. The following year, Curtiss’s thirst for flight and the free flow of ideas would pit him against the Wrights in one of the greatest patent fights in history.
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JFS Films, LLC
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On
July 4, 1908, Glenn Hammond Curtiss sat at the controls of a machine designed by
members of Alexander Graham Bell’s Aerial Experiment Association (AEA).
Nicknamed the June Bug, it was the fourth in a series of aircraft
designed by the AEA and Curtiss was the lead designer for this model. In front
of thousands of spectators, including officials from the Aero Club of America,
Curtiss coaxed his June Bug into the air over the cheering crowds, over
vineyards and fences, and beyond the red flags marking the end of the course. 
Six months prior,
Wilbur Wright had confidently predicted no one would solve the ‘problem of
flight’ for another five years since the few Europeans who had tried did not
come close to the brothers’ achievements. Now, the Wrights were forced to play
their hand or face the prospect of losing all credibility for their claim of
being first to fly. 