Editing Hammondsport, New York (section)

===Aviation development===
[[File:Curtiss' flying boat at Hammondsport launch.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Curtiss' "flying boat" at Hammondsport launch, 1913]]
Hammondsport was at the center of aviation development during the first years of the 20th century. The Reverend Claudius G. Curtiss, a Methodist minister, arrived at  Hammondsport in 1876. He was the grandfather of [[Glenn Curtiss|Glenn Hammond Curtiss]], the airplane designer who first developed aircraft capable of taking off and landing in water,<ref>[[#trimble2010|Trimble, 2010]], p. 2</ref><ref name=molson4-5/> who resided at Hammondsport, where he was born in 1878. At this time the population of Hammondsport was almost 1000 people.<ref name=mitchell10>[[#mitchell2001|Mitchell 2001]], p. 10</ref>

Not long after his father died Curtiss married Lena Pearl Neff in the Hammondsport Presbyterian Church. In a vacant storefront owned by Mrs. Benjamin Bennett, co-founder of the Hammondsport Herald, he opened up a bicycle shop across from the bandstand on Pulteney Square, which soon grew into a successful business.<ref>[[#house2003|House, 2003]], pp. 7-8</ref> Here he developed his own gasoline engine which he later produced in the Curtis Manufacturing Company (CMC) in Hammondsport. Its great success and national notoriety is said to have "put Hammondsport on the map".<ref>[[#casey1981|Casey, 1981]], p. 1</ref><ref>[[#shulman2002|Shulman, 2002]], p. 30</ref> Later Glenn became a motorcycle and aircraft designer and manufacturer in Hammondsport, and became a recognized expert on gasoline engines.<ref name=hammondsport/>  Curtiss' first involvement with aeronautics occurred in 1904, with his association with [[Thomas Scott Baldwin|Thomas Baldwin]], a pioneer balloonist, when Curtiss sold him a motorcycle engine to power his balloon. Together they built a large building on Kingsley Flats, a low-lying area between the village and the lake and began manufacturing balloons and [[dirigibles]] at Hammondsport.<ref>[[#trimble2010|Trimble, 2010]], p. 10, 20</ref><ref>[[#mitchell2001|Mitchell 2001]], pp. 10, 24</ref>

<!--[[File:Curtiss june bug.jpg|thumb|Curtiss piloting the[[AEA June Bug| ''June Bug'']] at Hammondsport, July 4, 1908]]-->
[[File:Airmail, Hammondsport, NY, July 18, 1930.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|The New York State Aviation Commission came to Hammondsport on an official visit to confer with Curtiss,  July 18, 1930{{efn|Their arrival occurred five days before the unexpected death of Curtis, whose pioneering involvement with aircraft prompted their visit }}]]
Early development of [[aircraft]] and [[seaplane]]s was carried out by Curtiss in his factory at Hammondsport, and who later had joined with [[Alexander Graham Bell]] and others in the [[Aerial Experiment Association]].  On July 4, 1908, the [[AEA June Bug|''June Bug'']], was the first American airplane to fly at least 1&nbsp;km and was flown by Curtiss from the Hammondsport airfield.<ref>[[#casey1981|Casey, 1981]], pp. 16-17</ref> The ''June Bug'' was later fitted with [[Float (nautical)|pontoons]] and became the first aircraft to perform takeoffs and landings on the water.<ref name=molson4-5>[[#molson1995|Molson, 1995]], pp. 4-5</ref> Hammondsport at Keuka Lake was the site where the first successful flight of a "flying boat" took place in July 1912. The first long distance "flying boat", the [[Curtiss Model H|''America'']], was also designed by Curtiss and launched in Keuka Lake at Hammondsport in 1914, while the people of Hammondsport and the press gathered to witness the landmark event.<ref>[[#trimble2010|Trimble, 2010]], p. 165</ref><ref name=molson4-5/>  This aircraft was again flown by Captain Jim Poel, and co-pilot, Lee Sackett, over Keuka Lake during an exhibition at Hammondsport in 2008 and again in 2009.<ref>[[#smithsonian1|Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum]], Essay</ref> In 1911 Curtiss founded the first flying school in America at Hammondsport.<ref>[[#merrill1944|Merrill, 1944]], pp. 136, 141</ref>  Here he taught [[Blanche Stuart Scott]] how to operate an airplane, who became America's first female pilot. During this time Scott resided in Hammondsport at the home of Curtiss and his family.<ref name=cummins30-75>[[#cummins2001|Cummins, 2001]], pp. 21, 30-31, 75</ref> Worlf War I flying ace, [[William Thaw II|William Thaw]], credited with five confirmed and two unconfirmed aerial victories, also attended the Curtiss flying school.<ref name=ACNL-1938>[[#conqueror|Air Corps News. 1938]], v. 21, n. 2</ref>

In 1914 another aviation pioneer, [[Samuel Langley]], brought his plane to Hammondsport to be reconditioned by Curtis and flown in a scientific demonstration <ref>[[#merrill1944|Merrill, 1944]], p. 143</ref> After a long and distinguished career in avionics Curtiss died unexpectedly in 1930 at the relatively early age of 52. His subsequent funeral service was held in Hammondsport at St. James Episcopal Church, with his interment in the family plot at Pleasant Valley Cemetery, just south of  Hammondsport in Urbana.<ref>[[#champlin1989|Champlin, 1989]], pp. 122-123</ref><ref>[[#cemetery|The Painted Hills Genealogy Society]], Essay</ref> Today the [[Glenn H. Curtiss Museum]],  located less than a mile south of Hammondsport on State Road, Rt. 54, houses many examples of Curtiss' airplanes and other inventions.<ref>[[#shilling1999|Shilling, 1999]], Journal article</ref>

[[Henry Kleckler]], was the shop foreman at Curtiss'  airplane manufacturing works (CMC) in Hammondsport.<ref>[[#schulman2002|Shulman, 2002]], p. 31</ref> Curtiss considered Kleckler his  "right hand man",  and a "master innovator and mechanic" He was also a native of Hammondsport and worked with Curtiss in developing more efficient  engines for the "flying boats" pioneered and developed by Curtiss.<ref>[[#Mitchell2001|Mitchell, 2001]], p. 121</ref><ref>[[#casey1981|Casey, 1981]], p. 125</ref>

On May 19, 1908, [[Thomas Selfridge]], while working with Curtiss in Hammondsport, became the first US military officer to pilot a modern aircraft, when he flew solo in the [[Aerial Experiment Association]]'s newest aircraft, ''[[AEA White Wing|White Wing]]'', off shore from the village in Keuka Lake. In September of that year, while conducting flying experiments with [[Orville Wright]] in Virginia, he was the first member of the military to die in a plane crash.<ref>[[#casey1981|Casey, 1981]], pp. 14, 36-37</ref><ref>[[#shulman2002|Shulman, 2002]], pp. 136, 145-146</ref>