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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.

• (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.
• (1932) Glenn Martin for the design of the Martin B-10 (XB-907) bomber.
• (1947) 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.
• (1954) Richard T. Whitcomb for his discovery of the area rule, a design method for supersonic aircraft.
• (1958 & 1963)Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was awarded this trophy twice for his leadership at Lockheed's Skunk Works in the development of the F-104 Starfighter (1958) and A-11, later the SR-71 Blackbird (1963).
• (1975) David S. Lewis, Jr., General Dynamics Corporation, and the USAF F-16 team, for significant advancements leading to innovative fighter aircraft effectiveness.
• (1986) Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, Burt Rutan and the team of the non-stop unrefueled circumnavigation of the Rutan Voyager
• (1989) Ben Rich for leading Lockheed's Skunk Works to develop the first stealth aircraft, the F-117.
• (1995) Boeing Commercial Airplanes and the Boeing 777 airliner development team, winner for producing the advanced 777 widebody twinjet.
• (2004) Burt Rutan and his SpaceShipOne team for designing and launching the first commercial manned launch vehicle
• (2005) 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.
• (2006) The F-22 Raptor Team, won because the F-22 "established the unquestionable superiority of the Raptor, a culmination of years of visionary design, rigorous testing, and innovative manufacturing," according to NAA President David Ivey. The Raptor Team consists of the United States Air Force, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Pratt and Whitney, and 1,000 other suppliers located in 42 states.

• other winners include Orville Wright (1913), Howard Hughes (1938), Scott Crossfield (1961), and the crew of Apollo 11 (1969).

The trophy is typically presented in the year following the one for which the trophy is given. For example, the 2005 winner, Eclipse Aviation, was not formally announced until February 16, 2006, and the formal trophy presentation was not made until May 15, 2006.

• The Collier Trophy - contains a fairly up-to-date listing of the winners
• Collier Winners by decade - from NAA's website
• From Engineering Science to Big Science - The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, Edited by Pamela E. Mack