Richard William Pearse — Upper Waitohi, New Zealand
Posted by: 
Dunbar Loop
S 44° 12.484 E 171° 07.384
59G E 509832 N 5105009
Richard Pearse took flight during March 1903 but crashed in his farm's paddock. Did he beat the Wright Brothers by nine months? This memorial does not say that but does he was the first British citizen to fly a heavier than air machine.
Waymark Code: WM8J4A
Location: South Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 04/08/2010
Views: 5
Richard William Pearse
1877 — 1953
New Zealand’s Pioneer Aviator
This monument commemorates the first powered flight to be made by a British citizen in a heavier than air machine.
Most evidence indicates this flight took place on 31st March 1903 and ended by crashing on this site.
The Wright Brothers are often credited with the first powered flight on December 17th, 1903. However, in a field in Upper Waitohi Richard Pearse had a short flight in March 1903. This has long been source of controversy in New Zealand: Who flew first, the Wrights or Pearse?
Part of the issue is that Pearse, unlike his American counterparts, did not keep accurate records of his developments nor his flights. Nor did he seem to care if was the first to fly. In a letter published on May 10th, 1915 in the Evening Star of Dunedin, Pearse wrote:
The honor of inventing the aeroplane cannot be assigned wholly to one man; like most other inventions, it is the product of many minds. After all, there is nothing that succeeds like success, and for this reason pre-eminence will undoubtedly be given to the Wright brothers, of America, when the history of the aeroplane is written, as they were the first actually make successful flights with a motor-driven aeroplane. At most America can only claim to have originated the aeroplane. The honour of perfecting it and placing it on its present footing belongs to France.
The key phrasing the Pearse used himself were ‘successful flight’ and ‘public flight’. Perhaps crashing in a field meant an unsuccessful flight and he wondered if a flight during a research period qualified. Regardless of his thoughts he did successfully fly during 1905 by his standards.
Pearse was inventor in all sorts of fields beyond aviation and obviously a humble man who seemed to accept his place in the competitive world of early flight.