1877-1953
Richard William Pearse was born on 3 December 1877 at Waitohi Flat, Temuka, South Island, New Zealand, the fourth of nine children to Digory Pearse and Sarah Brown. Digory was an immigrant from Cornwall and the son of Thomas Pearse who was born and baptised in South Petherwin, and Sarah from Ireland where she was working in a shop in Timaru. They farmed a property, Trewarlet, five miles inland from Temuka. There the couple, known locally as the "gentleman farmers", maintained an active social and cultural life. They fielded a strong tennis team, building their own courts on the estate, and even in an age where self rather than mass amusement was the norm, they were uncommonly musical, forming their own family orchestra in which Richard played the cello.
Richard, by disposition introspective, gentle, quiet and somewhat aloof, was a dreamer even at school, to the detriment of his studies. He excelled in one subject - engineering - and demonstrated an interest in flying and an eager mechanical curiosity from an early age. By the time he had finished his primary education at Waitohi his tinkering had blossomed into several inventions. These included a mechanical needle threader for his mother, a zoetrope for his sisters that produced moving-images by flicking through a series of still pictures, and a small steam engine made from a golden syrup tin filled with water. One day he arrived at the one room Upper-Waitohi school with a contraption consisting of a cotton reel, a nailed board, a piece of string, and the top of a herring tin cut and twisted into a propeller. He wound the string around the reel, tugged on it and sent the tin propeller shooting off from the nail. For the amusement of his classmates he had unwittingly made a facsimile of the earliest aircraft known: a mechanical toy first pictured in the pages of a 14th Century Flemish manuscript. After finishing school the young Pearse wanted to study engineering at Canterbury College, but the family could not afford it and instead, in 1898, when he turned 21, he was given the use of a nearby 100-acre farm block, which he was to farm intermittently for the next 13 years.
Richard spent much of his lifetime building light, powerful aero-engines and constructing aircraft for his numerous attempts at powered flight.
His most spectacular flights were those made after the turn of the 20th century using a horizontally opposed twin-cylinder engine fitted to a high-wing monoplane; Pearse using materials available in the locality built both plane and engine.
The last of his planes with its unusual engine is now on view at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland, but only parts of two earlier engines remain; these were recovered from a rubbish dump after being buried and lost for many years.
A considerable amount of research has been undertaken during the last ten years to ascertain the size and shape of the first aircraft, and it has now been possible to construct a plane which we believe closely resembles that used by Pearse during the years 1902-1903, when he made many hops and small flights. This replica is on view at M.O.T.A.T.
A question often asked is: "Did this man, a farmer's son with no technical training and with severely limited facilities and funds, really succeed where so many others had failed?" The proof can be seen in the advanced design of his engines and aircraft, which had many original features not then found elsewhere; and although many of his ideas were never developed to their full extent nevertheless his engine produced more than adequate power for the purpose of getting his plane airborne. The motor car did not appear in his locality until some years after Pearse had built and run his petrol engine; his design was based on the steam engines and early oil engines in use in the district, supplemented by information gathered from engineering books...
It is probably now impossible to establish without doubt if Pearse flew before the Wright Brothers. However, there is no doubt that Pearse's definition of flying was far more rigorous than that of the Wright Brothers, and that flights he made prior to the Wright's attempts were never classified by himself as, "actually flying". He later conceded that the Americans deserved the honour of being the first to make a controlled and sustained flight, but it is highly likely that he managed powered flight before the Wright brothers.
Pearse invented the aileron and variable pitch airscrew many years ahead of others researching control surfaces.
His Patent Specification was years ahead of its time, and features the improvements he felt were truly revolutionary.
Dave Moore has written a book entitled 'Who was Richard William Pearse 1877 to 1953 Aviation Pioneer' and has not followed along the same pattern of previous books about Richard Pearse, which discussed whether he had indeed been the first to Fly. He has concentrated on the origins of Richard Pearse and his family along with their strong connections to South Petherwin.
Copies of the book can be obtained from Dave Moore, 15a Hanley Avenue, Bramcote, Nottingham, NG9 3HE. Telephone 01159252879. www.daviation.moore@btinternet.com.