Curtiss A-2
Early Curtiss engines of one and later two cylinders were designed to power motorcycles. In 1904 a two-cylinder, V-type engine-believed to be the first Curtiss aircraft engine-was modified to power Capt. Thomas S. Baldwin's California Arrow. In 1905 the twin-cylinder motorcycle engine was developed into a more powerful airship engine, designated A-2, which powered many early American dirigibles.
This 1909 A-2 engine was purchased in 1910 from the R. O. Rubel, Jr. & Co., the southern distributor for Curtiss motorcycles and engines, by Mr. James Campbell of Easthampton, Massachusetts. Campbell used it in a Curtiss-type aircraft that he designed and constructed. Campbell's aircraft may have been the only heavier-than-air aircraft to use the A-2 engine.
Gift of Larry D. Lewis.
Date: 1909
Country of Origin: United States of America
Dimensions:
Case Diameter: 25.4 x 43.2 cm (10 x 17 in.)
Crankshaft: 7.9 cm (3 1/8 in.)
Physical Description:
Type: V-type, 2 cylinders, air cooled
Power rating: 5 kw (7 hp) at 1,500 rpm
Displacement: 1 l (60 cu in)
Weight: 23 kg (50 lb)
Manufacturer: Glenn H. Curtiss Co.
With compression relief for cylinders; with a propeller (removed); missing distributor; prop shaft cracked.
