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Curtiss-Wright

aircraft manufacturer in the United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ1138291
Source-derived summary

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is an American manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and various supplier companies, the company was immediately the country's largest aviation firm and built more than 142,000 aircraft engines for the U.S. military during World War II.

Curtiss-Wright no longer makes aircraft but still makes many related components, particularly actuators, aircraft controls, valves, and it provides surface-treatment services. It supplies equipment to the commercial, industrial, defense, and energy markets. It makes parts for commercial and naval nuclear power systems, industrial vehicles, and oil- and gas-related machinery.

History

Forming the Company

Curtiss-Wright formed on July 5, 1929, the result of combining 12 companies associated with Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company of Buffalo, New York, and Wright Aeronautical of Dayton, Ohio. It was headquartered in Buffalo, New York. With $75 million in capital (equivalent to $1.41 billion in 2025), it became the largest aviation company in the United States.

By September 1929, Curtiss-Wright had acquired the Moth Aircraft Corporation (which primarily built de Havilland Moth aircraft under licence) and the Travel Air Manufacturing Company.

Divisions

There were three main divisions: the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division, which manufactured airframes; the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, which produced aircraft engines; and the Curtiss-Wright Propeller Division, which manufactured propellers. After 1929, most engines produced by the new company were known as Wrights.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Curtiss-Wright” as aircraft manufacturer in the United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1929, 2025—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1916, 1929—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Curtiss-Wright, aircraft and manufacturer can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as aircraft manufacturer in the United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1138291. VIAF identifies the subject as 130194377. The Library of Congress control number is n81058566. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929 and 2025.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Curtiss-Wright”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Curtiss-Wright primary sources, Curtiss-Wright archive and Curtiss-Wright research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Curtiss-Wright”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Curtiss-Wright” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.