Story: Pearse, Richard William

Commemorating New Zealand’s first flight

Commemorating New Zealand’s first flight

Early aviator Richard Pearse achieved folk hero status in New Zealand, and his fame is celebrated in this stamp produced in 1990. In the early 1900s Pearse constructed a flying machine, and briefly achieved flight sometime during 1902–1904. The record for the first sustained flight, however, was claimed by the American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903.

Using this item

New Zealand Post
Reference: 1990 Heritage - the Achievers stamp issue

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How to cite this page:

Gordon Ogilvie. 'Pearse, Richard William', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1996. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3p19/pearse-richard-william (accessed 29 March 2024)