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The Curtiss H-1 flying boat America, which first flew on June 23, 1914, after being christened by Katherine Mossan, was built for Rodman Wanamaker, for an attempted non-stop transatlantic crossing that Lord Northcliffe of the London Daily Mail newspaper had offered a 10,000 Pounds prize for. This flight was going to start on August 15, 1914, with a British pilot, Lieutenant John Cyrill Porte, and an American copilot, George E. A. Hallett, but it was abandoned with the start of World War I, on August 3rd. The flying boat, which was painted red, was then sold to Great Britain. Lieutenant Porte later used its design as the basis for the Felixstowe F.5 flying boat, which was used by the Royal Navy from 1918 to 1925, and the Curtiss H-12 and H-16 flying boats. |
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The Curtiss H-1 flying boat America. Glenn Curtiss may be the first man that is standing on the left, in this photo. |
Lieutenant John Cyrill Porte and George E. A. Hallett on the Curtiss H-1 flying boat America! |
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THE PATH OF
"CURTISS" AMERICA
GEORGE E.A.
HALLETT
A closeup of the nose of a Curtiss H-12 flying boat! |
A Curtiss H-16 flying boat, whose fuselage has been modified for passenger service. The H-16 was a larger version of the Curtiss H-12 flying boat, and was used by the United States Navy and Britain, during World War I. 150 Curtiss H-16 flying boats were built by the Naval Aircraft Factory and 184 by Curtiss, with 60 of these going to Britain, where 345 horse-power Rolls-Royce Eagle IV engines were installed, instead of 360 horse-power Liberty engines.(1) After World War I, most of the U.S.N. H-16s were given 400 horse-power Liberty 12A engines.(2) This photo, which may show a H-16 that belonged to the American Trans-Oceanic Company, may have been taken near Naval Air Station Rockaway, on Long Island, in New York, around 1920. |
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The 1917 Curtiss H-16 Big Fish flying boat, which was painted as a fish, in American Trans-Oceanic Company service, at Lake George, New York, during the summer of 1921, before it was destroyed in a crash. Founded by Rodman Wanamaker, in 1916, the American Trans-Oceanic Company operated until 1921. This flying boat was used on their Miami, Florida to the Bahamas route and they also flew Curtiss HS-2L flying boats from West Palm Beach, Florida to Bimini and Cuba. |
(1) Paul Eden and Soph Moeng, The Complete
Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, Barnes & Noble, New York, 2002,
page 503.
(2) Eden and Moeng, page 503.