June Bug 1908

Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, founded the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in 1907, which designed and built several aircraft. One of the aircraft built by the AEA was the first American aircraft to be equipped with ailerons, the White Wing. The invention of the aileron led to a protracted patent fight between Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers. The AEA also built the first seaplane to be flown in the United States. In 1908, Glenn Curtiss won the Scientific American Trophy in the first plane that he built and flew, the June Bug, when it made the first public flight of more than one kilometer (0.6 mile) in the United States.