Aerial Experiment Association
| Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | |
| founding | October 1, 1907 |
| resolution | March 31, 1909 |
| Seat | Halifax , Canada |
| management | Alexander Graham Bell |
| Branch | Aircraft manufacturer |
The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) (about: Luftfahrt Versuchsgesellschaft ) was a Canadian manufacturer of aircraft . The company was founded under the leadership of Alexander Graham Bell on October 1, 1907 in Halifax , Nova Scotia .
In addition to engineers John Alexander Douglas McCurdy and his friend Frederick W. Baldwin, Glenn Curtiss and Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge were founding members of the company. Curtiss was actually interested in working with the Wright brothers , but they refused. As early as the summer of 1907, at Bell's express request, Selfridge was involved in experiments as a military observer for the US government. More engineers who were enthusiastic about flying joined the company and the collaboration soon began to show its first success. The AEA's third aircraft, the AEA June Bug , won the Scientific American award for its first public flight over 1 km in the United States on July 4, 1908. The Wright brothers were able to fly much further, but closed them off to the public to protect their patents as much as possible. The company also achieved the first controlled powered flight with the AEA Silver Dart in Canada on February 23, 1909.
Much of the development for the first seaplane took place in Hammondsport . Due to the success achieved, the company considered itself superfluous and dissolved on March 31, 1909.
Individual evidence
- ^ Aerial Experiment Association . Website of the Encyclopaedia Britannica . Retrieved February 16, 2015.