Glenn Curtiss Continued
giving exhibition flights and astounding french aviators with the control and manoeuvrability of the Wright Flyer. As in the USA flying in a straight line was no problem but making turns were
problematic for everyone except the Wrights. This was basically what the patent war was about.
The AEA produced one more aircraft before disbanding, the Silver Dart. It was a much improved version of the June Bug. It flew well and after the disbanding of the AEA went to Canada   with one of its designers John McCurdy to be the first controllable aircraft to fly in Canada. The photo of Silver Dart clearly shows the triangular ailerons at the end of the wings (invented by Alexander Bell).
The AEA disbanded for two reasons. Firstly the death of one of its members, Thomas Selfridge, and the defection of Glenn Curtiss.
    The Aeronautical Society of New York placed an order for a Curtiss No 1 Golden Bug aircraft from Glenn without the knowledge of the AEA., and Glenn went into partnership with Augustus Herring to form the Curtis Herring company, also without the knowledge of the AEA.
the response to the sale of the Golden Bug by the Wright brothers was to launch legal action against Curtis (and others) for infringement of patent.
The photo of the Gold Bug shows the unique Curtiss Style ailerons he was to use with his early biplanes. Between the wings is another movable 'little wing' protruding beyond the wingspan. This is the Curtiss version on the aileron. The plan

view clearly shows the aileron layout.
Before Bleriot flew across the English Channel (July 25th 1909)aviators were usually seen as eccentric thrill seekers. Aviation generally was an oddity with no practical value. But Bleriot changed that and aviation became the passion of Europe. The City of Rheims in France organised an air festival to capitalise on the new craze for flying.Glen Curtiss had intended to take a Gold Bug to Rheims but he crashed it. He built another aircraft, the Rheims Racer, in time for the opening of the event.

  flying his untested Rheims Racer Curtis won the race for the Gorden Bennet Cup, narrowly beating Louis Bleriot, at a world speed record of 46.5 mph.
The interesting technology here is that Curtiss was using ailerons to control roll but was still using separate control for pitch and roll, whilst Bleriot was using wing warping with his invention of the modern control stick for combined pitch and roll. Between them they had the basic modern control         system. The Wrights at this a stage where still using wing warping and separate controls for pitch and roll.
Also Bleriot was flying a Bleriot XII. The Bleriot XII was a tractor
Continued