biography
| name: |
Pearce, Richard William
|
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1877–1953)
|
| biography:
| Inventor and pioneer aviator, born in Waitohi, New Zealand. A farmer with an interest in mechanics, he began building an aeroplane in c.1899. In 1903, at Waitohi, from level ground, without the use of ramps, slopes, or catapults, he flew for a distance of possibly 137 m/150 yd. Of the seven powered take-offs made anywhere in the world, before that of the Wright brothers, this was the most successful. The first British subject to leave the ground in a powered aircraft, he subsequently abandoned his experiments with flight, but continued to design machinery. |
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