Curtiss No. 2
| No. 2, "Reims Racer" | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Curtiss at the controls of the Reims Racer | |
| Role | Racing aircraft |
| Manufacturer | Herring-Curtiss Company |
| Designer | Glenn Curtiss |
| First flight | 1909 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Curtiss No. 2, often known as the Reims Racer, was a racing aircraft built in the United States by Glenn Curtiss in 1909 to contest the Gordon Bennett Cup air race in Reims, France that year. It was a modified Golden Flyer, and was an open-framework biplane with two-bay unstaggered wings of equal span. It had a monoplane tail that controlled the rudder but the elevators were carried forward of the pilot as a biplane canard unit. The landing gear was wheeled and tricycle in configuration, with each unit carrying a single wheel. Large ailerons were carried in the interplane gap. Curtiss modified the Golden Flyer into the Reims Racer by adding a covered stabilizer unit at the canard, increasing the wing size, modifying the interplane elevators and replacing the four cylinder inline Curtiss OX engine with that of a Curtiss OX V8 that had been stripped down and specially lightened for the race. A new, lighter fuel tank was exchanged for the older, heavier one.
Curtiss' participation in the race was sponsored by the Aero Club of America, which had offered to back him after a similar offer was turned down by the Wright brothers. While not as fast as its European competitors, the Reims Racer was more maneuverable, and Curtiss, who piloted the machine himself, was able to take advantage of this by paying special attention to his turns. The first competitor to fly, Curtiss recorded a time of 15 minutes 50.4 seconds for the two 10 km circuits required. When Louis Bleriot made the final flight of the competition, he recorded a time 5.8 seconds longer, leaving Curtiss to claim the FF 25,000 prize. Curtiss's flight, at an average speed of 47.06 mph (75.48 km/h) was also a new airspeed record for the distance.
After Reims, Curtiss took the aircraft to Italy, where he won events at a competition at the Air Show in Brescia in September. There, he won the overall grand prize by flying the required five 10 km circuits in 49 minutes 24 seconds. He also won the quick starting prize, starting his engine in 8.2 seconds, and took second place to Henri Rougier in the altitude prize, climbing to 165 ft (51 m). While at Brescia, Curtiss gave Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio a short joyride, but declined a similar request by Princess Laetitia on the grounds that the seat would be unsuitable.
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