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With unusual [[strikethrough]] early [[/strikethrough]] vision Kirkham designed a very advanced feature into this engine. Provision was made to attach a mechanically driven supercharger at the rear of the engine to pressurize the induction system. During early engine trials a supercharger was installed and preliminary tests conducted which were dropped due to the urgency of developing the basic engine with normal induction. Because of Kirkham the engine was usually referred to as the Curtiss-Kirkham or K-12.

During this period the Curtiss production program was growing rapidly. Curtiss disliked the humdrum of production problems and longed for a separate division [[strikethrough]] exclusively [[/strikethrough]] devoted to research and development. In 1917 such a division was established at Garden City, Long Island, New York. This all-new well-equipped facility and air field was completed in November when Curtiss and a select staff of engineers and mechanics moved there, where their new engine program was continued.

Fearing that the true potential of his fine new engine might be lost by an installation in an unsuitable plane Kirkham designed a new military type triplane carefully tailored around the K-12 engine. Called the WASP it was first flown on July 5th, 1918 by Curtiss test pilot Roland Rohlfs, and during early tests it exceeded all expectations, showing exceptional climb and a top speed of 162 M.P.H. In 1919 Rohlfs established a new World Altitude Record of 34,610 feet with this remarkable plane without engine supercharging.

At Garden City Kirkham had charge of all design and wind tunnel work, and while there he produced the first complete data on heat-treating steels in chart form and the first materials purchase specifications.

During the late fall of 1918 and early spring of 1919 Kirkham designed and supervised the Curtiss K-6, 6-cylinder 150 [[strikethrough]] H.P. [[/strikethrough]] hp., engine. It was of the same general construction and virtually half of the K-12 engine was used with many interchangable parts.

In early summer of 1919 Kirkham left Curtiss and in late June opened an office in New York as a consultant for aviation companies. Two of his first contracts were with the Post Office Department and the New York office of the Deposited Metal Products Corporation of Newark, New Jersey.

In 1920 he went to Germany where he was engineer in charge of the construct-