Rob Bishop: “In 1909, the first flight across the English Channel was spurred on by a prize from a newspaper. Charles Lindbergh made…”

“In 1909, the first flight across the English Channel was spurred on by a prize from a newspaper. Charles Lindbergh made his flight, nonstop flight from New York to Paris because there was a prize offered. And a $30 billion aviation industry sprang out of that. The British Spitfire, which saved England in the Battle of Britain, was developed as a result of the Snyder Trophy, a prize for technological development. The United States Government also offers prizes today with its NASA Centennial Challenge Program, and it reaches out to nontraditional sources of innovation in academia, in industry, as well as the public. Americans have always looked to ourselves for solutions. If we just have the confidence in American ingenuity, American creativity to deal and to overcome our problems and to insist that we do it now, we do not wait, I am confident that we can do that. As I said, in all sincerity, if we are to solve the problem at the gas pump today, there are three elements that have to be there. We have to be able to produce more, to conserve more, and especially to innovate.”