Among the most successful early engines marketed in the United States were those designed and built by aviation pioneer and inventor Glenn Curtiss. Early Curtiss engines were designed to power motorcycles. Curtiss’s first direct involvement with propellers likely was assistance to Capt. Thomas S. Baldwin in the improvement of airship propellers. The Burgess Company of Marblehead, Massachusetts later supplied the Curtiss Company with wood propellers beginning in 1910 before the company started its own production in 1916.

After the 1929 merger of the Curtiss and Wright companies, propellers were manufactured by the Curtiss-Wright Propeller Division. Beginning in the mid-1930s electrically actuated propellers were manufactured under the name Curtiss Electric.

This artifact is a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine nose case with a shortened four blade Curtiss Electric propeller. The display contains operating controls for use as a training aid at the U.S. Naval Academy. The hub is cutaway, and all controls and components are displayed.