The Elmer A. Sperry Award, named after the inventor and entrepreneur, is an American transportation engineering prize. It has been given since 1955 for "a distinguished engineering contribution which, through application, proved in actual service, has advanced the art of transportation whether by land, sea, air, or space." The prize is given jointly by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Society of Automotive Engineers, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (which administers it). The purpose of the award is to encourage progress in the engineering of transportation. Recipients Source: Elmer A. Sperry award 1955 William Francis Gibbs, for the development of the SS United States 1956 Donald W. Douglas, for the DC series of air transport planes 1957 Harold L. Hamilton, Richard M. Dilworth and Eugene W. Kettering, for developing the diesel-electric locomotive 1958 Ferdinand Porsche (in memoriam) and Heinz Nordhoff, for development of the Volkswagen automobile 1959 Sir Geoffrey De Havilland, Major Frank Halford (in memoriam) and Charles C. Walker, for the first jet-powered passenger aircraft and engines 1960 Frederick Darcy Braddon, Sperry Gyroscope Company, for the three-axis gyroscopic navigational reference 1961 Robert Gilmore LeTourneau, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, for large capacity earth moving equipment and giant size tires 1962 Lloyd J. Hibbard, for applying the ignitron rectifier to railroad motive power 1963 Earl A. Thompson, for design and development of the first successful automatic automobile transmission 1964 Igor Sikorsky and Michael E. Gluhareff, Sikorsky Aircraft Division, United Aircraft Corporation, for developing the high-lift helicopter leading to the Skycrane 1965 Maynard Pennell, Richard L. Rouzie, John E. Steiner, William H. Cook and Richard L. Loesch, Jr., Commercial Airplane Division, Boeing, for the design and manufacture of the family of jet transports, including the 707, 720 and 727 1966 Hideo Shima, Matsutaro Fuji and Shigenari Oishi, Japanese National Railways, for developing the New Tokaido Line 1967 Edward R. Dye (in memoriam), Hugh DeHaven and Robert A. Wolf, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, for their contribution to automotive safety 1968 Christopher Cockerell and Richard Stanton-Jones, for the development of commercially useful hovercraft. 1969 Douglas C. MacMillan, M. Nielsen and Edward L. Teale, Jr. for the design and construction of the NS Savannah 1970 Charles Stark Draper of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Instrumentation Laboratories, for the successful application of inertial guidance systems