The ''June Bug'' was an American "pioneer era"

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

built by the Aerial Experiment Association (A.E.A) in 1908 and flown by Glenn Hammond Curtiss. The

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

was the first American airplane to fly at least 1 km in front of a crowd.

Design and development

A ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'' competition in 1907 offered a solid silver sculpted trophy, and $25,000 in cash, to be awarded to whoever made the first public flight of over 1 kilometer (3,280 ft) in an American aircraft. In 1907, Glenn Curtiss and the Aerial Experiment Association began building the ''June Bug'' with hopes of winning the Scientific American Cup. The ''June Bug,'' also referred to as ''Aerodrome #3'' (the third powered airplane built by the A.E.A), included the previously used

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

steering system, but a shoulder

yoke A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, used in dif ...

made it possible for the pilot to steer by leaning from side to side. The aircraft featured a canard, horizontal surfaces, and a rear rudder. The original

varnish Varnish is a clear Transparency (optics), transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not to be confused with wood stain. It usually has a yellowish shade due to the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmente ...

sealing the wing fabric cracked in the heat, so a mixture of turpentine, paraffin, and gasoline was used on the aircraft instead. The ''June Bug'' had yellow wings due to the

yellow ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the col ...

added to the wing mixture in order to make the aircraft show up better in the orthochromic-form

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

photographs of the time. The aircraft was named by

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

after the common '' Phyllophaga'', a beetle known colloquially in North America as the "June bug". This was because June bugs were observed to fly similarly to aircraft: they have large stiff outer wings for gliding, and more delicate smaller propeller-like wings that do the actual propulsion. The ''June Bug'' was tested by G.H. Curtiss in Hammondsport, New York, at Stony Brook Farm, on June 21, 1908. Three of the four test flights were successful, with distances of , , and , at an average speed of . On June 25, performances of and were considered encouraging, and the A.E.A. contacted the

Aero Club of America The Aero Club of America was a social club formed in 1905 by Charles Jasper Glidden and Augustus Post, among others, to promote aviation in America. It was the parent organization of numerous state chapters, the first being the Aero Club of New E ...

to sign up for the

Cup.

Operational history

Cup attempt

The Aero Club contacted the

Wright brothers The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...

, offering them the chance to make an attempt first. Orville wrote to decline the opportunity on June 30, as the Wrights were busy completing their deal with the

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

. Orville's message was received by July 1, and G.H. Curtiss took to the air as requested on July 4 (

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

). The flight was made a public event, and spectators were allowed to watch. The event was overseen by a delegation of 22 members of the Aero Club, headed by Alan R. Hawley. The

Kalem Company The Kalem Company was an early American film studio founded in New York City in 1907. It was one of the first companies to make films abroad and to set up winter production facilities, first in Florida and then in California. Kalem was sold to V ...

's film crew covered the event, making the ''June Bug'' the first airplane in the United States to perform in a movie. The nearby Pleasant Valley Wine Company opened its doors and offered free samples to the spectators at the event. Charles M. Manly, who had unsuccessfully tested the

Langley Aerodrome The Langley Aerodrome is a pioneering but unsuccessful manned, tandem wing-configuration powered flying machine, designed at the close of the 19th century by Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley. The U.S. Army paid $50,000 for the pr ...

in 1903, measured out the 1 km and distance with volunteer help. The ''June Bug'' took one false start, going high, but not far enough. On the second try, the airplane successfully flew 5,085 ft (1550 m) in 1 minute 42 seconds, winning the trophy and a US$25,000 cash prize. Amidst the publicity following the flight, the Wrights sent a warning to Curtiss that they had not given permission for the use of "their" aircraft control system to be used "for exhibitions or in a commercial way". In fact, none of the A.E.A.'s aircraft used a wing-warping system like the Wrights' for control, relying instead on triangular ailerons designed by

, which he successfully patented in December 1911. However, in 1913 a court ruled that this technique was an infringement of the Wright's 1906 patent. Three years previous to the ''June Bug''s flight, the Wrights had made flights of up to 24 miles (38 km) without official witnesses. However, the Wrights would have been required to install wheels and dispense with a catapult launch to compete for the 1908 prize.

Later use

From October to November, the ''June Bug'' was modified by adding floats to it in an attempt to create a seaplane. Renamed ''Loon'', attempts to fly it began on Keuka Lake on November 28. Although the aircraft could achieve speeds of up to on the water, it could not take off, and on January 2, 1909, one of the floats filled with water, causing the ''Loon'' to sink. It was recovered, but rotted in a nearby boathouse. A replica of the ''June Bug'' was built and flown in 1976 by Mercury Aircraft of Hammondsport.

Specifications

Curtiss_June_Bug_3-view_Aero_Digest_December_1928

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Squier, George Owen
"The Present Status of Military Aeronautics. II. Aviation. Representative Aeroplanes Of Various Types. The June Bug."
''Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1908,'' pp. 135–136 (Also Plate 23, Fig. 2). *Crouch, Tom D.. "AEA June Bug". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Mar. 2008, https://www.britannica.com/topic/AEA-June-Bug. Accessed 19 March 2023.

External links

{{Curtiss aircraft June Bug Curtiss aircraft 1900s United States experimental aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Alexander Graham Bell Canard aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1908 Aircraft with fixed tricycle landing gear Single-engined piston aircraft