He built over 50 planes and gliders, and, according to him, beat the Wright brothers into the sky by two years. It made me feel that I was far ahead of my brothers for I could fly like a bird, and they must still walk. He made two attempts to fly it, both of which predated the Wrights’ Kitty Hawk flights. Curtiss modified the Aerodrome and managed to make it fly for a few seconds. The Wrights’ plane was widely assumed to have been the first to fly.