The Curtiss Aerocar 1928-1940 by Andrew Woodmansey
published by Schiffer Publishing on 28 September 2024.
All images courtesy of the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum, Hammondsport, New York
Many of you will be familiar with the Curtiss Aerocar and perhaps even seen one at one of your meets. There is a fascinating story behind this vehicle which is now told for the first time in my latest book.
The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, NY asked me to write about the Aerocar after assisting me with my first RV history, Recreational Vehicles: A World History 1872-1939. I was more than happy to oblige. We know a lot about Glenn Curtiss’ aviation exploits but very little about his other motoring achievements. It was time to set the record straight. The museum’s archives are not yet digitised, making a research trip from Australia to New York compulsory. What a beautiful part of the world the Finger Lakes are! A visit to Curtiss’ grave in Hammondsport was an emotional moment for me.
I first though of the Curtiss Aerocar as a fifth-wheeled RV, but it turned out that the Aerocar was used for many other purposes beyond recreation. And it had a very unusual birth that would have surprised even Glenn Curtiss. First produced in 1928 (making it America’s first production travel trailer), the Aerocar in fact began life in 1919 with the Curtiss Camp Car, a basic fifth-wheeler designed by Curtiss for his private hunting trips.
The reason why Curtiss chose a fifth-wheeled design for his personal RV is fascinating, but I won’t spoil the surprise here. Suffice to say Curtiss used the commercially available Martin Rocking Fifth Wheel for his Camp Car but it turned out to be too heavy to deal with rough or soft terrain and the concept was put on ice. But many people who saw the Camp Car wanted one too, so Curtiss and his half-brother Carl G. Adams produced a smaller, lighter camping trailer called The Adams Motorbungalo based on a farm and goods trailer used in Curtiss aircraft factories. The Adams Motorbungalo was produced between 1920 and 1922 but ceased production with the move of Curtiss and Adams to Florida.
Researching the last decade of Curtiss’ life from 1920 to 1930, spent mainly in Florida, was a revelation for me. Most early aviation historians were less interested in this period of Curtiss’ life and is invariably (and briefly) referred to in Curtiss biographies as his ‘retirement’. Nothing could be further from the truth. This was one of the busiest periods of Curtiss’ life and, far from engaging in ‘real estate speculation’ which is a term often used to sum up his activities there, he became involved in community development, philanthropy, architectural design, agricultural experimentation, tourism, hunting, job creation (especially for the disadvantaged) and even movie making. A whole chapter of the book is dedicated to Curtiss’ time in Florida, since it’s here that the Aerocar came into being.
One of Curtiss’ initiatives in southern Florida was to develop an agricultural cooperative at Brighton, north of Miami. For Curtiss, farming not only created employment but also helped to build a resilient year-round local economy that traditionally came to life in winter but died in summer. In the mid 1920s truck farmers belonging to the Curtiss-Bright farming co-operative (dairy farmer James Bright was Curtiss’ agricultural partner) would drive their fresh produce into downtown Miami each day for sale to local hotels and stores. To transport their farming produce the farmers used this vehicle:
Does it look familiar? It’s almost certainly based on the Curtiss Camp Car of nearly a decade earlier. The Camp Car of 1919 may even have been driven down to Florida and adapted for this purpose, with one important change. The commercial fifth-wheel hitch had been replaced by one of Curtiss’ own design consisting of an aircraft tire horizontally mounted to the rear of the tow vehicle in a wooden frame. This invention was one of the keys to the success of the Aerocar and would later be called the Aero Coupler.
There is no evidence to suggest that Curtiss had any other plans for this trailer beyond the transport of farming produce and as a rolling billboard for Curtiss properties in Florida. That is, until one Carl G. Fisher took a ride in the trailer in April 1928 (he’s probably the man in the center of the photo above with a bow tie). Fisher was the developer behind Miami Beach and well connected to the ‘gasoline aristocracy’ of Detroit. He was also a supreme promoter. After riding in Curtiss’ farming trailer, Fisher wrote to Roy Chapin of Hudson Motor Company in April 1928, “Glenn Curtiss has the greatest trailer that was ever made in this country…This trailer is going to revolutionize touring in this country.” The partnership between the modest engineer and the effervescent marketing man was a match made in heaven. And the rest, as they say, is history.
One of Fisher’s marketing ideas was to drive an Aerocar from Miami to New York to demonstrate that the journey in an Aerocar could be completed in less time than by rail. The trip took place between August 5 and August 8 of 1928 using a second Aerocar design that was much sleeker than the prototype. The journey was completed in under 40 hours. Investors and business partners were quickly found for the project and Curtiss named the trailer the Aerocar. It went into production in a small factory in Opa-locka, Florida in late 1928 soon followed by a manufacturing facility in Detroit where Aerocars were made under license by auto body builder Briggs Manufacturing. Custom Aerocars would be built in Florida while cheaper production models would be made in Detroit.
I mentioned earlier that the Aerocar was not just an RV. From the outset it was designed to suit a range of purposes. During its life a number of other uses were found that surprised even its makers. These included ground transportation for the newly emerging commercial airlines, goods transport, sales trailer, passenger transport, an ambulance, oil and water transport and even a garbage truck. Here’s an Aerocar transporting two polo ponies:
The Curtiss Museum’s archives contains superb quality images of many private and business Aerocars, some of which are included in the book. I won’t tell the full story here, but how the Aerocar survived Curtiss’ premature death in 1930 for a full decade is another surprising part of its story. Above all however, I began my research looking for the vehicle and ended my research finding the man. Curtiss was a humble but out-of-the-box thinker who surrounded himself with like-minded people. Although the Aerocar is today remembered as a luxury RV, few will be aware that the origins of the Aerocar were as humble as its inventor. The fact that the Aerocar story survives to this day is testament to the high regard in which Curtiss was held by his contemporaries.
As for the Aerocars which remain today, I’d love to know how many are still out there. If you have information or photos, please get in touch with me at rvhistory.com. More information about the book is available here:
https://www.rvhistory.com/post/shedding-light-on-the-curtiss-aerocar
I recommend the book not just to vintage RV enthusiasts and Curtiss fans, but to anyone interested in American RV history of the early twentieth century.
For those who might be interested in vintage motorcycles, the sister book of The Curtiss Aerocar 1928-1940 is Curtiss Motorcycles 1902-1912 written by Rick Leisenring Jr. Rick was the curator of the Curtiss Museum for over 20 years and has written a superb book on the machines that set Curtiss up for an amazing life of inventing machines for the air, land and sea. Both books are now available from booksellers at $29.99 each.
Andrew Woodmansey
