In Hammondsport, New York, 2,000 people witnessed a triumph off the ground from Stony Brook Farm when a wood-and-fabric lifted off the field on 4 July 1908.

It was the first pre-announced public flight in America, the first flight of a flying machine outside Europe to mark history. Glenn H. Curtiss flew and was stable for a kilometer or more and gained him a national hero status, to the dismay of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

The June Bug, which was supposed to rise only a few dozen feet, shot more than 200 feet above the crowd on the first attempt but the tail section had been wrongly angled. On the second attempt, the plane with its crackling, smoky engine bobbed unevenly. It flew for 5,090 feet in 1 minute 42.5 seconds before touching down village grounds.

Ever since the success of the June Big, the Wright Brothers saw Curtiss as a rival in the aviation world and in business. Curtiss developed the first practical seaplane in 1911 and the flying boat in 1912, earning renown as “the Father of Naval Aviation.” From 1916 to 1918, he turned Buffalo into the airplane manufacturing hub of America.