The Curtiss V-8 motorcycle was a

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

-powered

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...

designed and built by aviation and motorcycling pioneer

Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early a ...

that set an unofficial

land speed record The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regul ...

of on January 24, 1907. The

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

F-head The intake/inlet over exhaust, or "IOE" engine, known in the US as F-head, is a four-stroke internal combustion engine whose valvetrain comprises OHV inlet valves within the cylinder head and exhaust side-valves within the engine block.V.A.W Hi ...

engine was developed for use in dirigibles.

Engine

The forty horsepower engine was the two

carburetor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...

version of the Curtiss Model B-8 aircraft powerplant, one of thirteen engines listed in the May 1908 "Aerial and Cycle Motors" catalog. The engine weighed and was offered for US$1,200 but it did not sell, in spite of the engine's notoriety from the speed record. An eight carburetor version of the Model B-8 was used in the experimental AEA Red Wing and White Wing airplanes that flew in 1908.

Legacy

Curtiss remained "the fastest man in the world," the title the newspapers gave him for going faster than any

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

, on land, sea or air, until 1911,Roseberry 1972, p. 57. when his absolute record was broken by the

Blitzen Benz The Blitzen Benz is a race car built by Benz & Cie in Mannheim, Germany, in 1909. In 1910 an enhanced model broke the world land speed record. It was one of six cars based on the Grand Prix car, but it had an enlarged engine, , inline-four, and ...

automobile. No motorcycle surpassed the record until 1930. Curtiss's success at racing strengthened his reputation as a leading maker of high-performance motorcycles and engines. It has been suggested that the literary character

Tom Swift Tom Swift is the main character of six series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention, and technology. First published in 1910, the series totals more than 100 volumes. The character was ...

was based on Curtiss. ''

Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle ''Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle, or, Fun and Adventure on the Road'', is Volume 1 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap. Plot summary Tom Swift, in his first adventure, has purchased a motorcycle and immediately ...

'', the first of over 100 books in the Tom Swift series, was published shortly after the V-8 record setting run. The record setting V-8 motorcycle is now in the Smithsonian's

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the N ...

. The Air and Space museum lent it to the Guggenheim for the 1998 '' The Art of the Motorcycle'' exhibition in New York. The

Curtiss OX-5 The Curtiss OX-5 was an early V-8 American liquid-cooled aircraft engine built by Curtiss. It was the first American-designed aircraft engine to enter mass production, although it was considered obsolete when it did so in 1917.Smith, 1981, page ...

aero engine, a successor of the V-8 motorcycle engine, powered several United States civilian and military aircraft. More than 10,000 were manufactured.

_Further_reading

* * * *

_External_links

*{{Commons_category-inline.html" ;"title="Alden_R._Hatch.html" ;"title="List of motorcycles of the 1900s to 1909 is a listing of motorcycles of this period, including those on sale, introduced, or otherwise relevant in this period Motorcycle *Achilles (1906-1912 motorcycle) *Advance (Australian motorcycle) *Curti ...

References

Bibliography

* Alden R. Hatch">Hatch, Alden. ''Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Aviation.'' Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2007. . * Roseberry, C.R. ''Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Flight''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1972. .

External links

*{{Commons category-inline">Curtiss V-8 motorcycle Motorcycles introduced in the 1900s Motorcycles of the United States Land speed record motorcycles Eight-cylinder motorcycles