The Glenn H. Curtiss Heritage Trail

— 1908 —

1908
When Glenn Curtiss flew the June Bug here in Pleasant Valley on July 4, 1908, he made American aviation history.
With Curtiss at the controls, the June Bug rose into the air, leveled off at a height of about 40 feet, and flew east toward Keuka Lake for almost a mile. He passed directly overhead and landed near the farthest edge of the tree line that is just visible in the distance. It was the first publicly announced and witnessed flight of a powered aircraft in the United States, conducted in front of an audience of prominent newspaper reporters and a crowd of nearly 1000 spectators. The flight won Curtiss the Scientific American Trophy.
The June Bug flight was the crowning achievement of Curtiss's work with his associates from the Aerial Experimentation Association, (AEA) including famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell. During the spring and summer of 1908, they used this area - then known as Stony Brook Farm — for short test flights of the new aircraft designs the AEA was developing, making their takeoffs from the farms nearby oval horse racing track.

The Glenn H. Curtiss Heritage Trail
Beginning as a self-taught bicycle mechanic, Glenn Curtiss went on to achieve national prominence as a pioneer aviator, the founder of the American aircraft industry, and the father of U.S. Naval Aviation. The Curtiss Heritage Trail celebrates the pioneering accomplishments of Hammondsport's most famous native son.

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