Richard Pearse Award for Innovative Excellence in the NZ Aviation Industry

New Zealand is home to a host of dynamic, technology-led companies, a forward thinking military and an internationally-renowned university sector. The “Richard Pearse Trophy for Innovative Excellence in the NZ Aviation Industry” turns the spotlight on their achievements.

 

This trophy will be awarded to a specific project or ongoing initiative that exhibits innovation in the field of aerospace, for example; development of innovative materials, power, propulsion or guidance systems, or equipment.

Richard Pearse was a man ahead of his times and it is fitting that this award should be named after him. Pearse appears to have successfully flown and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine on 31 March 1903, some nine months before the Wright brothers.

 

Whether or not Pearse flew in any acceptable sense, and regardless of the exact date, his first aircraft was a remarkable invention embodying several far-sighted concepts: a monoplane configuration, wing flaps and rear elevator, tricycle undercarriage with steerable nose wheel, and a propeller with variable-pitch blades driven by a unique double-acting horizontally opposed petrol engine. Richard Pearse was a true innovator in every sense of the word.