Who is richard pearse
Richard Pearse was a New Zealander who attempted to beat the Wright Brothers during the race to see who could build the first plane. Richard had very strange nicknames which included "Mad Pearse" and "Bamboo Dick". This man was amazingly a self taught inventor. On about the 31st of March 1903, Richard climbed into his self-built plane and flew about 140m before crashing into a gorse hedge. Eight Months Later, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight at Kitty Hawk North Carolina on the 17th of December 1903. Some people might say that Richard was the first man to fly a plane, but others would say that his flight wasn't a 'real' flight. Since then, Richard was forgotten until, forty or fifty years later, the remains of his plane was found in a Christchurch garage. To build his plane, Richard went to dumps to gather materials and his parents gave him some items to use. His plane was made of bamboo, tubular steel, wire and canvas. He not only built a plane, he also created lots of other inventions such as a potato planter and a recording machine. Richard was also a very excellent tennis player and was very interested and passionate about the cello.