“The honor of inventing the airplane cannot be assigned wholly to one man; like most other inventions, it is the product of many minds.”

-Richard Pearse, Kiwi inventor and aviator, 1877-1953.

The quote above is from a letter written by Richard Pearse to The Star newspaper from New Zealand and published in the 10 May 1915 issue. The title of the letter was Who Invented the Aeroplane?, and the above quote comes from the first paragraph. It’s part of a larger thought, which follows:

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 to actually make successful flights with a motor-driven aeroplane. At most America can only claim to have originated the aeroplane. The honor of perfecting it and placing it on its present footing belongs to France.

Pearse is acknowledging that no single person can stake a claim at inventing the airplane. Flight is a primal need for humans, and as such, there is a rich history of flight attempts since antiquity. Each of the myriad ideas and prototypes over the years built on the knowledge that came before it. When the Wright Brothers made their iconic flight in 1903, it was the culmination of centuries of knowledge and testing.


Quote taken from Pearse, Richard. “Who Invented the Aeroplane?” The Star (Christchurch, New Zealand), May 10, 1915.