The amazing Glen Curtiss, part two

Continuing the life and times of this important figure in America’s automotive and aviation history.

MANIFESTATIONS of Glen Curtiss’s diverse interests, visionary imagination, and fascination with advancing the evolution of personal transportation included bicycles, motorcycles, aircraft engines and aircraft.

He even blended various aspects of these with the creation of vehicles like a flying car prototype built in 1917.

In spite of an impressive list of achievements and accolades Curtiss had become bored with the aeronautical business and in the early 1920s he sold his controlling interest in the corporation that bore his name and retired. However, he continued providing service as a consultant to the company for more than a decade afterwards.

Before leaving the company, Curtiss had been involved in an array of experimental projects that included modifying aircraft engines for automotive use. In the November 1921 issue of Aviation and Aerial Age Weekly an expansive article detailed a project spearheaded by Curtiss and engineer Benjamin F. Gregory. The vehicle created was a highly modified 1917 Marmon 34 Cloverleaf roadster. It used the Curtiss designed OX-5 engine and a specially designed transaxle with the result being a high-performance front wheel drive racecar.

During the same period Prado Motor Corporation based in New York City was using the modified OX-5 engine in their limited production luxury cars. The short-lived Dallas, Texas based Wharton Motors Company also built a prototype vehicle using the OX-5 engine. The various companies using this engine gave Curtiss an idea, he would build cars himself.

 Discussions were initiated between Curtiss and automotive designer Miles Harold Carpenter who had been building the limited production Phianna car with OX-5 power in Queens, New York. However, the Curtiss Motor Car Company proved to be a still born project.

Carpenter had prepared numerous drawings of highly advanced aeronautically streamlined designed bodies. But only two prototypes were built using OX-5 equipped Phianna chassis. The lingering post WWI economic recession prevented further development.

As with many industrialists of the era, including Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, Curtiss greatly enjoyed camping. So, one of his first retirement projects was to design and build a camping trailer for his hunting and fishing trips into New York State’s Adirondack, Berkshire and Catskill mountains. Articles in Scientific American and Popular Mechanics detailed the unique and innovative “compact hotel on wheels.”’

Utilizing aircraft designs and components the 20-foot-long trailer was exceptionally light ensuring that it could be towed behind the average automobile. Curtiss himself tested towing the trailer at speeds of 60 miles per hour to ensure balance and safety.

The interior of the rigid-roofed trailer included a folding table and bunks that allowed four people to sleep comfortably. There were also two hinged screened beds attached to the exterior walls. The interior featured storage compartments, a camping kitchen, and a toilet. Exterior lockers were specifically designed to store items such as a spade and axe as well as hunting and fishing gear.

Men like Curtiss seldom actually retire. The interest in the trailer fueled by extensive publicity led Curtiss to establish a company with his half-brother, G. Carl Adams. Within a year the company was offering a complete line of trailers for camping or commercial application. They were all built using a standard rectangular single axle bed with triangular prow whose single spike dropped into a receiver located at the rear of the tow vehicle in a fifth wheel manner.

The flagship was the Motor Bungalo Deluxe with a retail price of $1,200. It had used rigid aircraft type construction and measured 12 ft. 6 in. long, 5 ft. 8 in. wide and 6 ft. 4 in. tall. At the opposite end of the sales hierarchy was the Motor Bungalo Junior, a more traditional type of folding canvas-topped camp trailers priced from $485 to $655 dependent on optional equipment ordered.

The commercial line of trailers all shared the same unique five-sided trailer bed as the Bungalo Jr. They, however, were sparse on equipment as they had been designed to serve as portable offices.

The basic open-bed Model A was offered at a price of just $195. This unit featured the rigid construction utilized on other trailers but rather than aluminum the exterior was covered in ’Tufhyde’, a nitrite-coated fabric. Other commercial units included a $215 dumping trailer, and a top-of-the-line unit that sold for $370.

An expansive advertisement published in Popular Science was headlined with a bold banner that read “A Deluxe Motor Bungalow.” Accompanying photos was lengthy text. “Hitch a Bungalow to Your Car. “’Stop at the Glenmore!’ At regular intervals you see this sign as you tour through the country; you decided to stop there. But when you arrive, weary and worn, you find that the Glenmore is in the heart of the city on a noisy main street, or else that it is full. Glenn H. Curtiss and G. Carl Adams, have solved this problem by inventing a bungalow on wheels that is attached to the automobile, trailer fashion. It is well-equipped, and yet not heavy enough to cause excessive strain. When you wish to sleep, eat, or rest, you stop the car in some convenient place and move into the bungalow. There you will find a kitchen, pantry, a bathroom, clothes and bedding lockers, a table, chairs, and berths that will accommodate six people. The bungalow even has electric lights and running water. The windows are all properly screened, and they are also provided with water-proof curtains.”

This was only the beginning.

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com