Collier Trophy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herbert Hoover presents the Collier Trophy to NACA Chairman Joseph Ames in 1929

The Collier Trophy is the most prestigious award in the aviation field, given once a year to those that have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year."

Robert J Collier, publisher of Colliers Weekly magazine, was a sports-pilot and president of the Aero Club of America. He commissioned the 525 pound (240 kg) trophy in 1911, originally named the Aero Club of America Trophy. After presenting it several times, Collier died in 1918 after the end of World War I.

It was renamed in his honor in 1922 when the Aero Club dissolved, and the award was taken over by the National Aeronautic Association. The name became official in 1944, and the award presented once a year by the president of the National Aeronautic Association, with the trophy on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum.

[edit] Famous Recipients

Chuck Yeager for piloting the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. According to his biography, Yeager used the trophy in his garage to store nuts and bolts.
Richard T. Whitcomb for his discovery of the area rule, a design method for supersonic aircraft.
Ben Rich for leading Lockheed's Skunk Works to develop the first stealth aircraft, the F-117.
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was awarded this trophy twice for his leadership at Skunk Works in the development of the F-104 Starfighter and A-12, later the SR-71 Blackbird.
David S. Lewis, Jr., General Dynamics Corporation, and the USAF F-16 team (1975), for significant advancements leading to innovative fighter aircraft effectiveness.
(1929) Fred Weick, for design of the NACA cowling which revolutionized civil air transport by making aircraft faster and more profitable. It also found application on the bombers and fighters of World War II.
(1986) Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, Burt Rutan and the crew of the round-the-world-flying Scaled Composites Voyager
group of winners including Orville Wright, Howard Hughes, Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield, the crew of Apollo11, and SpaceShipOne.
(2006) Eclipse Aviation was awarded as the result of Eclipse Aviation's "leadership, innovation, and the advancement of general aviation" in the production of very light jets, specifically, the Eclipse 500.