Before the war Porte had worked with American aircraft designer Glenn Curtiss on a flying boat, "America" in which they intended to cross the Atlantic in order to win the £10,000 prize offered by the British "Daily Mail" newspaper for the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic. Following the outbreak of war in Europe, Porte returned to England and rejoined the Royal Navy, eventually becoming commander of the naval air station at Felixstowe where he recommended the purchase from Curtiss of an improved version of the "America" flying boat on which he had worked, the Curtiss H-4 type, resulting in the RNAS receiving two prototype "Americas" and 62 H-4s.