Burgess Model H
The Burgess H was the first aircraft with tractor propeller of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1913.
On February 1, 1911 William Starling Burgess and Greely S. Curtis received the license for reproduction of Wright aircraft. They deal with the construction and sale of aircraft for the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. The Burgess Company & Curtis was established on 3 June 1911 in Marblehead (Massachusetts ).
The Burgess H was developed from the beginning as a military aircraft. The biplane was built in 1912. Burgess The H had a 70 hp Renault engine, which drove a tractor propeller. In the beginning she was only a single seater, but was rebuilt in 1914 by Grover Loening the two-seater.
The Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps received in September 1913 five Burgess H. The machines went to the 1st Aero Squadron at Rockwell Field on North Iceland in San Diego. Here was the Signal Corps Aviation School. The Burgess H were the Machine number 24-28 of the Aeronautical Division. They were followed by 1913 - 1915 used as a training aircraft.
A seaplane version went to the U.S. Navy, which was later referred to as D -1 and AB -7.
On February 14, 1914 presented Lieutenant Townsend Dodd and Sergeant Herbert Marcus to a new permanent flight and track record with a Burgess H. The flight lasted 4 hours and 43 minutes, and the flight distance was 393 km. The two-seater machine broke while the records for single-seat aircraft.
Later, Burgess worked with the British John William Dunne and sold together eg the Burgess - Dunne AH -7 to the U.S. Navy and the Canadian Aviation Corps. The Burgess Company built aircraft until 1918.