Richard Pearse

Richard William Pearse (3 December 1877 — 29 July 1953), a New Zealand farmer and inventor, performed pioneering experiments in aviation. Image File history File links Pearse. ... Image File history File links Pearse. ... is the 337th day of the year (338th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 210th day of the year (211th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Farmer (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Inventor (disambiguation). ... Aviation refers to flying using aircraft, machines designed by humans for atmospheric flight. ...

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. The documentary evidence to support such a claim remains open to interpretation, however, and he does not appear to have developed his aircraft to match the Wrights' achievement of sustained flight. Pearse himself made contradictory statements which for many years led the few who knew of his feats to accept 1904 as the date of his first flight. The lack of any chance of industrial development, which was what spurred the Wrights to develop their machine, seems to have suppressed any recognition of Pearce's achievements. March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871–January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867–May 30, 1912), were two Americans generally credited with building the worlds first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Biography

Pearse was born as the fourth of nine children. His father Digory Pearse originally came from Cornwall, United Kingdom and his mother Sarah from Ireland.^[1] Pearse demonstrated skill and inventiveness from an early age and had wanted to study engineering at an advanced level, but the family did not have the money, having already sent his older brother Tom to medical school. Instead, in 1898 when he turned 21 he received the use of a nearby 100-acre (40.5 hectares) farm block. He farmed this intermittently for the next 13 years, but never became a keen farmer and devoted himself to engineering and inventions. Cornwall (pronounced ; Cornish: ) is a county in south-west England, United Kingdom, on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar and Devon. ... Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas, USA. A medical school or faculty of medicine is a tertiary educational institution or part of such an institution that teaches medicine. ...

Early work

In 1902 Pearse built and patented a bicycle with vertical crank gears and self-inflating tyres. He then designed and built a two-cylinder "oil engine" which he mounted on a tricycle undercarriage surmounted by a linen-covered bamboo wing-structure and rudimentary controls. Although it lacked an aerofoil section wing, his flying machine resembled modern aircraft design much more than did the Wright brothers' machine: monoplane rather than biplane; tractor rather than pusher propeller; stabiliser and elevators at the back rather than the front; and ailerons rather than wing-warping for controlling banking. It bore a remarkable resemblance to modern microlight aircraft. “Velo” redirects here. ... For a table of tire companies, see List of tire companies. ... Antique tricycle 19th century tricycle used in Iran A tricycle (often abbreviated to trike) is a three-wheeled vehicle. ... Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 87s, with fixed conventional landing gear. ... Torn linen cloth, recovered from the Dead Sea Linen is a material made from the fibers of the flax plant. ... Diversity Around 91 genera and 1,000 species Subtribes Arthrostylidiinae Arundinariinae Bambusinae Chusqueinae Guaduinae Melocanninae Nastinae Racemobambodinae Shibataeinae See the full Taxonomy of the Bambuseae. ... An airfoil (or aerofoil in British English) is a specially shaped cross-section of a wing or blade, used to provide lift or downforce, depending on its application. ... A monoplane is an aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. ... Hs123 biplane. ... A British WWI-era F.E.2b pusher. ... For the band with a similar name, see The Ailerons Ailerons are hinged control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. ... Ultralight aviation is a segment of aviation that is permitted in the United States of America by the FAA as long as certain weight, speed, and fuel capacity restrictions are observed. ...

Flights

Pearse made several attempts to fly in 1902, but due to insufficient engine power he achieved no more than brief hops. The following year he redesigned the engine to incorporate double-ended cylinders with two pistons each. Researchers recovered components of his engine (including cylinders made from cast-iron drainpipes) from rubbish dumps in 1963. Replicas of the 1903 engine suggest that it could produce about 15 horsepower (11 kW). 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... hp, see HP (disambiguation) The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. ... The kilowatt (symbol: kW) is a unit for measuring power, equal to one thousand watts. ...

Verifiable eyewitnesses describe his crashing into a hedge on two separate occasions during 1903. His monoplane must have risen to a height of at least 3 metres on each occasion. Good evidence exists that on 31 March 1903 Pearse achieved a powered, though poorly controlled, flight of several hundred metres. ^[2][3] Pearse himself said that he had made a powered takeoff, "but at too low a speed for [his] controls to work". However, he remained airborne until he crashed into the hedge at the end of the field. March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...

With a 15-horsepower engine, Pearse's design had an adequate power-to-weight ratio to become airborne (even without an aerofoil). However he was still developing the ability to achieve fully controlled flight. Pearse incorporated effectively located (albeit possibly rather small) "ailerons". The design's low centre-of-gravity provided pendulum stability. However, diagrams and eye-witness recollections agree that Pearse placed controls for pitch and yaw at the trailing edge of the low-aspect ratio kite-type permanently stalled wing. Located in turbulent air-flow, and close to the centre of gravity, they would have lacked adequate turning moment to control the pitch or yaw of the aircraft. The principles of his design, however, are precisely in line with modern thinking. The Wright brothers, in comparison, successfully applied the principles of airfoil wing profile and three-axis control to produce fully controlled flight, although their design, using wing-warping and forward mounted stabilizer, soon became obsolete. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Flight dynamics is the science of air and space vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. ...

Pearse's work remained poorly documented at the time. No contemporary newspaper record exists. Some photographic records survived, but undated, with some images difficult to interpret. Pearse himself made contradictory statements which for many years led the few who knew of his feats to accept 1904 as the date of flying. Unconcerned about posterity and in remote New Zealand, he received no public credit for his work during his lifetime. The Wrights had considerable difficulty in getting their accomplishment recognised, despite better documentation and witnesses; a "Fliers or Liars?" debate continued for quite some time after Kitty Hawk, and it took highly public demonstrations before the Wright brothers gained wide recognition. Although Pearse patented his design, his innovations — such as ailerons and the lightweight air-cooled engine — were unable to influence others. 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... Kitty Hawk could mean: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina USS Kitty Hawk The Command module of the Apollo 14 spacecraft. ...

List of Witnessed Flights

March 31, 1902 - First powered flight. Estimated distance around 350 yards in a straight line barely controlled.

March ? 1903 - A distance of only about 150 yards.

May 2, 1903 - The distance is unknown, but the aircraft ended up in a gorse hedge 15' off the ground.

May 11, 1903 - Pearse took off along the side of the Opihi River, turned left to fly over the 30' tall river bank, then turned right to fly parallel to the middle of the river. After flying nearly 1,000 yards, his engine began to overheat and lost power, thus forcing a landing in the almost dry riverbed. One of the locals, Arthur Tozer, was crossing the river at the time and reported Pearse flying over his head.

July 10, 1903 - The distance is unknown, but the aircraft was stuck in a hedge many feet above the ground until the snow melted.^[4]

Later activities

Pearse moved to Milton in Otago in about 1911 and discontinued his flying experiments due to the hillier country there. Much of his experimental equipment got dumped in a farm rubbish-pit. However, he continued experimenting and produced a number of inventions. He subsequently moved to Christchurch in the 1920s, where he built three houses and lived off the rentals. Milton is a town of some 2,000 people, located on State Highway 1, 50 kilometres to the south of Dunedin in Otago. ... Otago (help· info) is one of the regions of New Zealand and lies in the south-east of the South Island. ... For other uses, see Christchurch (disambiguation). ...

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Pearse continued to work on constructing a tilt-rotor flying-machine for personal use — sometimes described as a cross between a windmill and a rubbish-cart. His design resembled an autogyro or helicopter, but involved a tilting propeller/rotor and monoplane wings which, along with the tail, could be folded to allow storage in a conventional garage. Pearse intended the vehicle for driving on the road (like a car) as well for flying. However he became reclusive and paranoid that foreign spies would discover his work. Committed to Sunnyside Mental Hospital in Christchurch in 1951, Pearse died there two years later. Researchers believe that many of his papers were destroyed at that time. Modern Autogyro, ELA-07, Casarrubios del Monte Airfield, Spain, 2004. ... A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades. ...

Analysis

On his death, the Public Trustee administered Pearse's estate. Fortunately for posterity, the trust officer given the task of disposing of his personal effects recognised the significance of his aeronautical achievements and brought them to wider attention. As a result, aviation pioneer George Bolt saw Pearse's last flying machine. In 1958 Bolt excavated the South Canterbury dump-site and discovered some components, including a propeller. His research in the 1960s (among eyewitnesses, most of them schoolchildren at the time of Pearse's early achievements) produced strong circumstantial evidence for flight in 1903: people who had left the district by 1904 remembered the events, and recalled a particularly harsh winter with heavy snow. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... George Bruce Bolta New Zealand aviation was a pioneer noted for many firsts. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Circumstantial evidence is lesbian sex with a huge glass dildo unrelated facts that, when considered together, can be used to infer a conclusion about something unknown. ...

During filming of a television documentary in the 1970s, crew attached a replica of Pearse's 1902 machine by a rope to a team of horses. When the horses bolted, the machine took to the air and flew, indicating that the design could fly. Unfortunately, this did not get filmed, as the crew had packed away their cameras at the end of the day's shooting. Fate seems to have conspired against any of Pearse's machines achieving recognition!

A memorial to Pearse's attempts at powered flight stands near Pleasant Point in South Canterbury. Pleasant Point is a small country town in southern Canterbury, New Zealand, some 19km inland from Timaru. ...

The Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland displays a replica of Pearse's aircraft. For the centenary of Pearse's alleged flight, a replica motor was also made^{[citation needed]}. The two, combined successfully, became airborne, albeit very briefly. Visitors to the museum can also see Pearse's last flying machine and the scant remains of his first aircraft. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a museum located in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. ... Schematic map of Auckland. ...

The South Canterbury Museum in Timaru includes display material relating to Pearse and his contribution to early aviation. Timaru is a major port city in the southern Canterbury region of New Zealand, located 160 kilometres south of Christchurch and about 200 kilometres north of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. ...

Legacy

At the dawn of the 20th century, a number of enthusiasts in several countries advanced towards powered heavier-than-air flight — a fact easily overlooked in the wake of the first practical controlled flights by the Wright brothers, who gained international fame during their public flight demonstrations of 1908. Pearse, as one of several pre-Wright designers, advanced some distance towards controlled flight. However, unlike many of these other pre-Wright aeronauts, Pearse had little influence on his successors, because details of his ideas and experiments went unpublished.

Pearse's designs and achievements remained virtually unknown beyond the few who witnessed them, and they had no impact on his contemporary aviation designers. However, his concepts had much in common with modern aircraft design, and others later implemented these concepts without knowing of Pearse's efforts. As a result some have described Pearse as a man ahead of his time. (So far ahead of his time, in fact, that the second New Zealand flight did not happen until 5 February 1910 when Vivian Walsh flew a plane he had built himself.) is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Vivian Claude Walsh was an engineer and pioneer of New Zealand aviation. ...

Much controversy persists around the many competing claims of early aviators. See first flying machine for more discussion. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Pearse in the arts

Film and the stage have commemorated Richard Pearse's remarkable achievements over the years.

Two plays centred on Pearse: The Pain and the Passion, by Sherry Ede, and Too High the Sun, by Stephen Bain and France Hervé.

In the 1970s New Zealand's TV One produced a television movie about Pearse and his first flight. The film focused on Pearse's reclusive manner and his small town's perception of his eccentric activities. TV ONE is a free to air New Zealand television channel run by TVNZ. It is primarily targeted at a more mature audience, with a broad range of programming including ONE News and Current Affairs and ONE Sport. ...

In 1995 Forgotten Silver, a mockumentary by filmmakers Costa Botes and Peter Jackson, purported to uncover long-lost "evidence" proving Pearse's flight predated the Wrights'. Forgotten Silver (1995) is a New Zealand film mockumentary that purports to tell the story of a pioneering New Zealand filmmaker. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Costa Botes is a writer, director, and cinematographer. ... Peter Jackson CNZM (born October 31, 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker best known as the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which he, along with Fran Walsh, his long time partner, and Philippa Boyens, adapted from the novels by J. R. R. Tolkien. ...

In 2006 New Zealand composer Ross Devereux made Pearse the subject of a two-act rock opera, entitled The Planemaker - A Richard Pearse Story. The Whos Tommy, the first album explicitly billed as a rock opera A rock opera or rock musical is a musical production in the form of an opera or a musical in a modern rock and roll style rather than more traditional forms. ...

Notes and references

External links

• Pictures of Richard Pearse and his flying machine
• Biography from Museum of Transport and Technology
• Biography from Auckland Airport
• Biography from NZEdge
• ODP Directory of Richard Pearse websites
• BBC news July 2003 - Inventor claims first manned flight
• Research into Richard Pearse
• New Zealand Aviation Pioneers
• Early New Zealand Fliers - PEARSE - OGILVIE - SCHAEF (from AvStop Magazine Online)
• Photos of Richard Pearse Memorial - Full Size replica of flying machine
• Books by Pearse's biographer, Geoffrey Rodliffe
• Book: The Riddle of Richard Pearse by Gordon Ogilvie
• Bill Sherwood sticks to success in 1902
• The Planemaker: A Richard Pearse Story