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In early 1915 the company received a sizable order for special planes from the British Government. This, in addition to their growing business at home, forced them to build a second plant at Lynn, Massachusetts, to increase their manufacturing capacity. That year they also sold more special water planes to wealthy sportsmen, one being Harry Payne Whitney of New York.

In February, 1916, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation acquired the services of W.S. Burgess and his organization. The Curtiss Company took over the stock of the Burgess Company. Mr. Burgess became a Curtiss director, and all Burgess Company employees became actively engaged in the business of the Curtiss Company. A Burgess Division was established to continue building their existing models of planes. Again, Curtis and Burgess brought out some new planes and their business was growing rapidly. More special planes were sold to sportsmen and a new twin-float tractor hydro was developed. Later, a single float tractor was produced using the Curtiss OX engine.

In January, 1917, their plant facilities were again increased and in April announcement was made of a new side-by-side Curtiss OX-engined land trainer plane. By May the company was building large flying boat hulls for the Curtiss Company and during the summer brought out two new model planes, the Speed Scout Seaplane and a large twin-float, twin-motored seaplane. During the summer of 1917, following the declaration of war, Curtis assisted in organizing a Massachusetts Naval Militia Unit. In December Burgess accepted a commission as Lt. Commander in the Navy and was stationed in Washington. At this time, Curtis took over at Marblehead and later became a Director of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation.

During 1918, the Burgess Company built twin-engined airship cars for the Navy and also completed an order for 400 N-9 training seaplanes. On November 7th, the company suffered a serious loss when their No. 2 plant was destroyed by fire with an estimated loss of $300,000. Also lost were most of the company

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