The Robert J. Collier Trophy is awarded annually "for 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." The Collier Trophy is administered by the

National Aeronautic Association The National Aeronautic Association of the United States (NAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and a founding member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Founded in 1905, it is the oldest national aviation club in the Uni ...

(NAA) the oldest national aviation organization in the United States. Founded in 1905, the NAA oversees America's oldest and most prestigious aviation and aerospace recognitions. The Collier Trophy is the most coveted of all. Robert J. Collier, publisher of ''

Collier's Weekly } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'' magazine, was an air sports pioneer and president of the

Aero Club of America The Aero Club of America was a social club formed in 1905 by Charles Jasper Glidden and Augustus Post, among others, to promote aviation in America. It was the parent organization of numerous state chapters, the first being the Aero Club of New E ...

. In 1910, he commissioned Baltimore sculptor Ernest Wise Keyser to make the ''Aero Club of America Trophy''. It was first awarded in 1911 to Glenn H. Curtiss for his successful development of the hydro-aeroplane. Collier presented his namesake trophy several times before his death in 1918. The award is presented once a year by the NAA president, with the trophy on permanent display at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

. The trophy was stolen briefly in 1978, but was recovered. The thieves left it at Fort Foote park and it was recovered 26 hours from the time it went missing.

Recipients

* 1911 – Glenn H. Curtiss, for successful development of the hydro-aeroplane."The Curtiss Company."
''US Centennial of Flight Commemoration,'' 2003. Retrieved: January 28, 2011. The first award. * 1912 – Glenn H. Curtiss, for the invention of the single-pontoon seaplane and development of the flying boat. * 1913 –

Orville Wright The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first succes ...

, for development of his

automatic stabilizer In macroeconomics, automatic stabilizers are features of the structure of modern government budgets, particularly income taxes and Welfare (financial aid), welfare spending, that act to damp out fluctuations in real GDP. The size of the government ...

. * 1914 – Elmer Sperry and

Lawrence Sperry Lawrence Burst Sperry (21 December 1892, Chicago, Illinois, United States – December 13, 1923, English Channel) was an aviation pioneer who invented the autopilot and the artificial horizon. Biography Sperry was the third son of the gyroc ...

, for the invention of gyroscopic control. * 1915 – W. Starling Burgess, for the Burgess-Dunne BD series of semi-flying wing seaplanes. * 1916 – Elmer Sperry and Lawrence Sperry for the invention of a drift indicator * 1917–1920 – No trophy awarded due to the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

* 1921 – Grover Loening, for development of the Loening Flying Yacht. * 1922 – United States Air Mail Service, for the first transcontinental air mail route without a single fatal accident. * 1923 – United States Air Mail Service, for the first transcontinental air mail route involving night flight. * 1924 –

United States Army Air Service The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial warf ...

, for first aerial flight around the world. * 1925 – Sylvanus Albert Reed, for the metal propeller. * 1926 – Major Edward L. Hoffman of the

for the development of a practical

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

. * 1927 – Charles L. Lawrance, for the development of the air-cooled aircraft

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

. * 1928 – Aeronautics branch of the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

for development of airways and navigation facilities. * 1929 – National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), for design of the

NACA cowling The NACA cowling is a type of aerodynamic Aircraft fairing, fairing used to streamliner, streamline radial engines installed on airplanes. It was developed by Fred Weick of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1927. It was a ...

for radial air-cooled engines. 1930 Collier Trophy

* 1930 – Harold Frederick Pitcairn and associates for development of the

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), gyroscope, gyrocopter or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. A gyroplane "means a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-d ...

. * 1931 – Packard Motor Car Co. for the design/development of the first, practical diesel aircraft engine, the DR-980 radial engine. * 1932 – Glenn L. Martin for the design of the

Martin B-10 The Martin B-10 is a bomber aircraft designed by the Glenn L. Martin Company. It was the first all-metal monoplane bomber to be regularly used by the United States Army Air Corps, having entered service in June 1934.Jackson 2003, p. 246. It wa ...

(XB-907) bomber. * 1933 – Frank W. Caldwell of

Hamilton Standard Hamilton Standard was an American aircraft propeller (aircraft), propeller parts supplier. It was formed in 1929 when United Aircraft and Transport Corporation consolidated Hamilton Aero Manufacturing and Standard Steel Propeller into the Hamilto ...

for the hydraulically controllable propeller. * 1934 – Captain A. F. Hegenberger

USAAC The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

for the first blind flying landing system. * 1935 – Donald W. Douglas and his technical and production personnel for the outstanding twin-engine transport airliner. * 1936 –

Pan American Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

for establishment of a transpacific airline and the successful execution of extended overwater navigation in regular operations. * 1937 – Army Air Corps for the design and development of the Lockheed XC-35. * 1938 –

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...

and his associates for breaking the record time by flying around the world in 91 hours and 14 minutes. * 1939 –

Airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

s of the US safety record, with special recognition to Walter Boothby, Randolph Lovelace, and Harry Armstrong. * 1940 – Dr. Sanford A. Moss and the Army Air Corps for development of the turbo-supercharger. * 1941 – Army Air Corps and the

s of the US for pioneering worldwide air transportation vital to immediate defense. * 1942 – General Henry Arnold for his "organization and leadership of the Army Air Forces throughout the world." * 1943 – Captain Luis de Florez,

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

for his contribution to the safe and rapid training of combat pilots and crews. * 1944 – Carl Spaatz "for demonstrating the air power concept through employment of American aviation in the war against Germany." * 1945 – Luis W. Alvarez for the Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) which allowed radar operators to guide pilots to a safe landing in all weather conditions. * 1946 – Lewis A. Rodert of NACA, for the design and development of an aircraft anti-icing system. * 1947 – Lawrence Bell, John Stack,

Chuck Yeager Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in his ...

shared the award for their work on the

Bell X-1 The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces– U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by B ...

, the first aircraft to break the

sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...

. * 1948 – The Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics for developing an

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

system. * 1949 – William Lear for the development of the F-5

automatic pilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...

and automatic approach control coupler system. * 1950 – The Helicopter Industry, the Military Services, and the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

– for development and use of rotary-wing aircraft for air rescue operations. * 1951 – John Stack for the

NACA The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...

Langley transonic wind tunnel. * 1952 – Leonard S. Hobbs of United Aircraft Corp., for the design, development, and production of the Pratt & Whitney J57 jet engine. * 1953 – James H. Kindelberger for

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...

's F-100 and Edward H. Heinemann for Douglas aircraft carrier based F4D. * 1954 –

Richard T. Whitcomb Richard Travis Whitcomb (February 21, 1921 – October 13, 2009) was an American Aeronautical engineering, aeronautical engineer who was noted for his contributions to the science of aerodynamics. Biography Whitcomb was born in Evanston, Il ...

for his discovery of the ''

area rule The Whitcomb area rule, named after NACA engineer Richard Whitcomb and also called the transonic area rule, is a design procedure used to reduce an aircraft's drag at transonic speeds which occur between about Mach 0.75 and 1.2. For supersoni ...

'', a design method for supersonic aircraft. * 1955 –

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

's William M. Allen and General Nathan F. Twining

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

for the development, production, and operation of the B-52. * 1956 – Charles J. McCarthy of Chance-Vaught Aircraft and Vice Admiral James S. Russell U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics for the F-8U Crusader the first operational aircraft capable of speeds exceeding . * 1957 – Edward P. Curtis for "Aviation Facilities Planning", the long-range planning addressing problems with aircraft, air space, and facilities. * 1958 – Clarence "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified research and developme ...

, and

Gerhard Neumann Gerhard Neumann (October 8, 1917 – November 2, 1997) was a German-American aviation engineer and executive for General Electric's aircraft engine division (which today is called GE Aerospace). Born and raised in Germany, he went to Chin ...

and Neil Burgess of GE, for leadership in the development of the F-104 Starfighter and its J79 engine. * 1959 –

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee ...

Division of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

, and Space Technology Laboratories for the development of the

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

missile * 1960 – Vice Adm William F Raborn for directing the creation of the Polaris fleet ballistic missile system. * 1961 –

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

Aviation with

Scott Crossfield Albert Scott Crossfield (October 2, 1921 – April 19, 2006) was an American United States Navy, naval officer and test pilot. In 1953, he became the first pilot to fly at twice the speed of sound. Crossfield was the first of twelve pilots who fl ...

, Joseph A. Walker,

Robert Michael White Robert Michael White (July 6, 1924 – March 17, 2010) ( Maj Gen, USAF) was an American electrical engineer, test pilot, fighter pilot, and astronaut. He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane join ...

and Forrest S. Petersen,

X-15 The North American X-15 is a Hypersonic speed, hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft which was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the List of X-planes, X-plane series of ...

test pilots. * 1962 –

Mercury Seven The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959: Scott ...

, group of first seven astronauts. * 1963 – Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, for his leadership at Lockheed's Skunk Works in the development of the A-12

Mach The Mach number (M or Ma), often only Mach, (; ) is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a Boundary (thermodynamic), boundary to the local speed of sound. It is named after the Austrian physi ...

3 aircraft. * 1964 –

Curtis LeMay Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was a United States Air Force, US Air Force General (United States), general who was a key American military commander during the Cold War. He served as Chief of Staff of the United St ...

"for development of high performance aircraft, missiles and space systems." * 1965 –

James E. Webb James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949 to 1952. He was the second Administrator of NASA, Administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to Octob ...

and Hugh L. Dryden for the

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and ...

. * 1966 – James McDonnell for development work in aeronautics and astronautics, specifically on the F-4 Phantom and

space vehicles. * 1967 – Lawrence "Pat" Hyland of

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace company, aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes ...

Surveyor program The Surveyor program was a NASA program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of Soft landing (rocketry), soft landings on the Moo ...

for placing the eyes, ears & hand of the United States on the Moon. * 1968 –

Apollo 8 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Sphere of influence (astrodynamics), Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times ...

crew: Col. Frank Borman, USAF; Capt. James A. Lovell Jr., USN; Lt. Col. William A. Anders, USAF for the first lunar orbit. * 1969 –

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

crew: Neil A. Armstrong, COL. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., USAF; COL. Michael Collins, USAF for the first landing of man on the surface of the Moon, July 20, 1969. * 1970 –

The Boeing Company The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

for their introduction of the

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

. * 1971 –

David Scott David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932) is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the List of Apollo astronauts#People who have walked on the Moon, seventh person to walk on the Moon. Selected as part of the NASA Astronaut ...

James Irwin James Benson Irwin (March 17, 1930 – August 8, 1991) was an American astronaut, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force Aviator, pilot. He served as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, the fourth human lunar landin ...

, Alfred Worden, and

Robert Gilruth Robert Rowe Gilruth (October 8, 1913 – August 17, 2000) was an American aerospace engineer and an aviation/space pioneer who was the first director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He worked ...

of the

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the Apollo program and the fourth Moon landing. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greate ...

mission. * 1972 – The Officers and Men of the

7th Air Force The Seventh Air Force (Air Forces Korea) (7 AF) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Osan Air Base, South Korea. The command's mission is to plan and direct air component operations in ...

and 8th Air Force of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

and Task Force 77 of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

for

Operation Linebacker II Operation Linebacker II, sometimes referred to as the Christmas bombings and, in Vietnam, Dien Bien Phu in the air, was a strategic bombing campaign conducted by the United States against targets in North Vietnam from 18 December to 29 December ...

. * 1973 – William C. Schneider and crews of the Skylab program * 1974 – John F. Clark of NASA and Daniel J. Fink of GE, representing NASA's Earth Resources Technology Satellite Program,

LANDSAT The Landsat program is the longest-running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. It is a joint NASA / USGS program. On 23 July 1972, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Lan ...

for mankind's management of the Earth's resources and with recognition to

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes H-4 Hercules air ...

and

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

. * 1975 – David S. Lewis Jr. of General Dynamics Corporation and the

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...

Air Force Industry Team. * 1976 -

and

Rockwell International Corporation Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

for the highly successful design, development, management, and flight test of the B-1 strategic aircraft system. * 1977 - Robert J. Dixon for his work on Red Flag. * 1978 - Sam B. Williams for development of the small, high-efficiency

turbofan A turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a combination of references to the preceding generation engine technology of the turbojet and the add ...

. * 1979 - Paul MacCready for the MacCready Gossamer Albatross piloted by Bryan Allen made the first man-powered flight across the English Channel. * 1980 - Edward C. Stone representing the Voyager mission team's fly-by of

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

. * 1981 -

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

Martin Marietta The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin Marie ...

, and

Thiokol Thiokol was an American corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur () and glue (), an allusion to the company ...

for the development of crewed reusable spacecraft noting astronauts John Young, Robert Crippen,

Joe Engle Joe Henry Engle (August 26, 1932 – July 10, 2024) was an American pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut. He was the commander of two Space Shuttle missions including STS-2 in 1981, the program's second orbital flight. He also flew ...

and Richard Truly. * 1982 - Thornton "T" Arnold Wilson and

for the

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet Boeing 727, 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The ...

and the 767. * 1983 - The United States Army and Hughes Aircraft Helicopters for advanced weapons systems for the AH-64A Apache. * 1984 - Bruce McCandless and Charles E. Whitsett of

and Walter W. Bollendonk of

for their work on satellite rescue and repair. * 1985 - Russell W Meyer and

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufactu ...

Aircraft for the outstanding safety record of the

Cessna Citation The Cessna Citation is a family of business jets manufactured by Cessna that entered service in 1972. In the fifty years following the type's first flight in 1969, more than 7,500 Citations were delivered, forming the largest business jet flee ...

aircraft. * 1986 - Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager,

Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the recor ...

and the team of the first non-stop unrefueled

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

of the Rutan Voyager. * 1987 - NASA Lewis Research Center and the NASA/industry advanced turboprop team for their work in new

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

technologies. * 1988 - Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly U.S. Navy for the successful return of America to space after the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster. * 1989 - Ben Rich of Lockheed and

team for the first stealth aircraft, the

F-117 The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is an officially retired American single-seat, subsonic, Twinjet, twin-engined, stealth aircraft, stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated ...

. * 1990 -

Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionalit ...

team for the first large

tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft that generates lift (force), lift and thrust, propulsion by way of one or more powered Helicopter rotor, rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shaft (mechanical engineering), shafts or nacelles ...

aircraft.Maisel, Martin D., Demo J. Giulianetti and Daniel C. Dugan
NASA SP-2000-4517, "The History of the XV-15 Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft: From Concept to Flight" (PDF)
p155 ''

'', 2000. Accessed: 17 March 2012. * 1991 - The

Northrop Corporation Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spiri ...

, the Industry Team and the

for the

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit The Northrop B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American Heavy bomber, heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth aircraft, stealth technology designed to penetrator (aircraft), penetrate dense anti-aircraft war ...

. * 1992 -

Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

, Aerospace Corporation,

, and

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Federal Systems Company for

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...

(GPS). * 1993 - The Hubble Space Telescope Recovery Team for the recovery and repair of the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

. * 1994 -

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...

, and

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

for developing and producing the

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previ ...

. * 1995 -

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is a division of the Boeing Company. It designs, assembles, markets, and sells commercial aircraft, including the 737, 767, 777, and 787, along with freighter and business jet variants of most. The divis ...

for producing the

Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 777 is the world's largest twinjet and the most-built wide-body airliner. ...

. * 1996 - Cessna Aircraft Company for producing the

Citation X The Cessna 750 Citation X is an American mid-size business jet produced by Cessna; it is part of the Citation family. Announced at the October 1990 NBAA convention, the Model 750 made its maiden flight on December 21, 1993, received its type ...

the US's first commercial aircraft to cruise at .92

. * 1997 -

Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is an American aircraft company and a subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 aircraft sinc ...

for producing the ultra-long range business jet the

Gulfstream V The Gulfstream V (Model GV, pronounced "G-five") is a large, long-range business jet aircraft produced by Gulfstream Aerospace, derived from the previous Gulfstream IV. It flies up to , up to and has a range. It typically accommodates four c ...

. * 1998 -

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

, GE Aircraft Engines,

Air Combat Command The Air Combat Command (ACC) is one of nine List of Major Commands of the United States Air Force, Major Commands (MAJCOMs) in the United States Air Force, reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force (HAF) at the Pentagon. It is the prim ...

, and

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) specializing in military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense and the United States In ...

for the U-2S/ER-2 high altitude, all-weather, multi-functional data collection aircraft. * 1999 -

, GE Aircraft Engines,

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

Raytheon Technologies RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies Corporation, is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by reve ...

, and

for the F/A-18E/F multi-mission strike fighter aircraft. * 2000 -

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

L-3 Communications L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training ...

, and

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

for the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk. * 2001 -

Pratt and Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially a ...

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

and the

Joint Strike Fighter program Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is a development and acquisition program intended to replace a wide range of existing Fighter aircraft, fighter, strike fighter, strike, and ground attack aircraft for the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, C ...

Office for LiftFan Propulsion System. * 2002 -

Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by the Russian-American aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian ...

and the S-92 team, led by Nicholas Lappos. * 2003 -

for the development of the G550, the first civil aircraft to include an

enhanced vision system An enhanced flight vision system (EFVS, sometimes EVS) is an Avionics, airborne system which provides an image of the scene and displays it to the pilot, in order to provide an image in which the scene and objects in it can be better detected. I ...

as standard equipment. * 2004 -

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the ...

, Doug Shane,

Mike Melvill Michael Winston Melvill (born November 30, 1940, in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a world-record-breaking pilot and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShip ...

, Brian Binnie, and the

SpaceShipOne SpaceShipOne is an experimental air launch, air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to / using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "Feathering (reentry), feathering" atmosph ...

team for the first privately designed, funded, built, and flown commercial crewed space-launch vehicle. * 2005 - Eclipse Aviation for producing the

Eclipse 500 The Eclipse 500 (model EA500) is a very light jet (VLJ) originally produced by Eclipse Aviation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. The company was founded in 1998 to develop the 1997 Williams V-Jet II demonstrator. The prototype first ...

, the world's first very light jet. * 2006 -

, and

for producing the

F-22 Raptor The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American twin-engine, jet-powered, all-weather, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft. As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was de ...

. * 2007 - Automatic Dependent Surveillance-broadcast ( ADS-B) team that includes

AOPA The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is a Frederick, Maryland-based American non-profit political organization that advocates for general aviation. AOPA's membership consists mainly of general aviation pilots in the United States ...

, ALPA, CAA, ERAU, FAA, ITT,

MITRE The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...

, UPS, and ACSS for supporting NextGen. * 2008 - The

Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) The Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) is a US aviation safety partnership between regulators, manufacturers, operators and professional unions, research groups, international organizations to further enhance safety. It was founded in 1997 ...

for reducing commercial scheduled airline fatalities. * 2009 - The

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

team including

Draper Laboratory Draper Laboratory is an American non-profit research and development organization, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts; its official name is The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. The laboratory specializes in the design, development, an ...

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automa ...

United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets ...

United Technologies United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational corporation, multinational list of conglomerates, conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous are ...

for the world's largest spacecraft. * 2010 - The

Corp. Sikorsky X2 Technology Demonstrator team for revolutionary helicopter development. * 2011 -

for designing, building, delivering, and supporting the 787 Dreamliner. * 2012 -

/ JPL

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity (rover), Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale (crater), Gale Crater on Augus ...

Curiosity Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps Developmental psyc ...

project team for their successful Mars mission. * 2013 -

/ U.S. Navy/Industry team for designing, building, and demonstrating the X-47B; and for the aircraft's ability to autonomously operate from and perform arrested landings upon an aircraft carrier. * 2014 -

for producing the G650. * 2015 - The NASA- JPL Dawn Mission team for orbiting and exploring

protoplanet A protoplanet is a large planetary embryo that originated within a protoplanetary disk and has undergone internal melting to produce a differentiated interior. Protoplanets are thought to form out of kilometer-sized planetesimals that gravitatio ...

Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. * 2016 - The

Blue Origin Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own ...

team for demonstrating rocket booster reusability with the

New Shepard New Shepard is a Reusable launch vehicle, fully reusable Sub-orbital spaceflight, sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the List of space travelers by nationali ...

human spaceflight vehicle. * 2017 -

Cirrus Aircraft The Cirrus Design Corporation, doing business as Cirrus Aircraft (formally Cirrus Design), is an aircraft design, manufacturing, maintenance and management company, as well as a provider of flight training services, that was founded in 1984 by ...

for designing, certifying, and entering-into-service the SF50 Vision, the first single-engine personal jet; and for their inclusion of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) on the aircraft. * 2018 - The Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) team, which includes the

Air Force Research Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command, Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct- ...

, Lockheed Martin, the F-35 Joint Program Office, and NASA for lifesaving technology. * 2019 - The USAF-Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Team for developing and employing the world's only reusable, autonomous spaceplane. * 2020 -

Garmin Garmin Ltd. is an American multinational technology company based in Olathe, Kansas. The company designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes GPS-enabled products and other navigation, communication, sensor-based, and information ...

for designing, developing, and fielding Garmin Autoland – the world's first certified autonomous system that activates during an emergency to safely control and land an aircraft without human intervention. * 2021 - The

/ JPL/'' Ingenuity'' team for the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet, thereby opening the skies of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

and other worlds for future scientific discovery and exploration. * 2022 - NASA and Northrop Grumman for the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

"for its unprecedented discovery mission to explore, identify and photograph what lies beyond what is currently known and to seek what is unknown." * 2023 - NASA, Lockheed Martin, the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

and KinetX for

OSIRIS-REx OSIRIS-REx was a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission that visited and collected samples from 101955 Bennu, a C-type asteroid, carbonaceous near-Earth object, near-Earth asteroid. The material, returned in September 2023, is expected ...

, the first American mission to gather an asteroid sample and its return to earth * 2024 - NASA and the

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (or simply Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University ...

for the

Parker Solar Probe The Parker Solar Probe (PSP; previously Solar Probe, Solar Probe Plus or Solar Probe+) is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 to make observations of the Stellar corona, Sun's outer corona. It used repeated Gravity assist, gravity assists from ...

, which ventured deep into the Sun's corona, passing from the solar surface, seven times closer than any previous spacecraft, and setting a record for the fastest human-made object at a speed of , three times faster than any prior spacecraft.

Gallery

File:HoffmanCollierTrophyfromPresCoolidge.jpg, 1926 Collier Trophy President

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...

presented to Edward L. Hoffman for the modern freefall

File:1927 Collier Trophy presented by President Coolidge to Charles Lawrance (cropped).jpg, 1927 Collier Trophy President Coolidge presented to

Charles Lawrance Charles Lanier Lawrance (September 30, 1882 – June 24, 1950) was an American aeronautical engineer and an early proponent of air-cooled aircraft engines. Early life Lawrance was born on September 30, 1882, in Lenox, Massachusetts, the son of ...

for the air-cooled aircraft

File:Harold Frederick Pitcairn portrait in 1930 with the Collier Trophy.jpg, 1930 Collier Trophy recipient Harold Frederick Pitcairn for the

File:1933 Collier Trophy President Roosevelt congratulates Frank W. Caldwell.jpg, 1933 Collier Trophy President Roosevelt congratulates Frank W. Caldwell of

for the controllable-pitch propeller File:1939 Collier Trophy Dr. Walter Meredith Boothby, William Randolph Lovelace II, and Harry George Armstrong.jpg, 1939 Collier Trophy President Roosevelt congratulates US

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

s Dr. Walter Meredith Boothby, William Randolph Lovelace II, and Harry George Armstrong File:Lew Rodert accepting the Collier Trophy from President Harry S Truman in December 1947.jpg, 1946 Collier Trophy President Truman congratulates Lewis A. Rodert for the thermal aircraft anti-icing File:1951CollierTrophy Truman n John Stack.jpg, 1952 Collier Trophy President Truman congratulates John Stack for the Langley transonic wind tunnel File:Vice President Nixon awards 1958 Collier Trophy.jpg, 1958 Collier Trophy with (L to R) Walter W. Irwin, Howard C. Johnson, US VP Nixon,

, Neil Burgess, Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson File:1966CollierTrophyJames Smith McDonnell.jpg, 1966 Collier Trophy with James Smith McDonnell Jr. founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation for the F-4 Phantom and

File:Jsc2011e075769 orig.jpg, 1973 Collier Trophy VP Ford congratulates

Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Skylab was constructe ...

Program Director William C. Schneider File:1992 CollierTrophyGPS.jpg, 1992 Collier Trophy for the Global Positioning System File:2011 Collier Trophy Recipient, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and Collier Selection Committee.jpg, 2011 Collier Trophy presented to

for the 787 Dreamliner File:2014 Collier Trophy Presentation, Northrop Grumman X-47B.JPG, 2013 Collier Trophy presented to

/ U.S. Navy for the X-47B File:2015 Collier Trophy Presentation, Gulfstream G-650.JPG, 2014 Collier Trophy presented to

Gulfstream The Gulf Stream is a warm Atlantic Ocean current. Gulf Stream or Gulfstream may also refer to: Businesses *Gulf Stream Hotel, an historic hotel in Lake Worth Beach, Florida *Gulfstream Aerospace, manufacturer of private jet aircraft *Gulfstream C ...

for the G650

References

{{Reflist

External links

''One Hundred Years of the Collier Trophy''
"The

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

"-- Dick Rutan
The Collier Trophy
– contains listing of the winners up to 2006

* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdgf6y-ktLgOctober 10, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy remarks upon presenting the Collier Trophy to the Mercury Seven

787 Dreamliner joins proud legacy of Boeing Collier Trophy wins Aviation awards Awards established in 1911

Recipients

Gallery

See also

References

External links