The Zoom Zoom Zoom of '07
January 24, 1907 - Motorcyclist Zooms to 136 M.P.H.
Glen Curtiss, perhaps best known as the first licensed airplane pilot (the Wright Brothers were actually #3 an #4 licenses) and operating America's first airplane manufacturing company (later it would merge with the Wright's company and become Curtiss Wright and still in operations), was a formidable figure in the history of flight. His "June Bug" was the first plane to make an extended flight - over one mile.
Curtiss was foremost an inventor, and contributed to the development and refinement of many different modes of transportation - bicycles, automobiles, airplanes, and one of his true joys - motorcycles. He would be instrumental in developing light-weight internal combustion engines and creating the handlebar throttle control for motorcycles.
One hundred and one years ago on this day in 1907, Curtiss would set the world land-speed record at 136.36 mph in his V8 powered motorcycle in Ormond Beach, Florida. Curtiss' land-speed record would stand for 30 years.
Relative Speed: Three years later in May of 1910, Curtiss would claim the air-speed record and $10,000 prize from publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Curtiss flew his bi-plane along a 137 mile course in New York in 153 minutes, averaging about 55 mph and then flew over Manhattan Island and circled the Statue of Liberty. British pilot Andy Green holds the current land-speed record for a motor powered vehicle at 763 mph driving the Thrust Super Sonic Car. The "car" was powered by twin jet engines, reached 600mph in less than 16 seconds, and was the first "car" to break the sound barrier. The record was set October 1997 in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
Quote for ToDay:
" On Politics: Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President, should on no account be allowed to do the job! " - - Douglas Adams, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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