Originally Posted by Genghis the Engineer
I don't think there's anything wrong with any kind of "hall of fame" celebrating the greats of a particular nation's aviation achievements - so long as they admit that's what they are doing.
But, if you start to introduce people from outside your own parish, you really need to be less partisan.
G
I'd agree this is a remarkably poor effort (the wonders of the web).
But my point is even when 'pretending' or 'attempting' to be unbiassed, just by the nature of what you know, a national bias
always creeps in. The exception is international collaborative listing efforts - such as the 'Chronicle of Aviation' book.
Show me a listing of greats, and I'll tell you what nationality the compiler was...
Yes, we would have to rewrite the history books for Pearce - The jury's in and the answer was 'not successful'. There was an excellent series in Aeroplane Monthly about several pioneers whose achievements were massaged and re-invented for national adulation. Pearce and Santos Dumont were two who'd done a fair amount, but not as much as their NZ and Brazilian boosters would have you believe. "Intelligent Design" for aviation, I'm afraid.