Harper Aviation was founded by Rick Harper to design and manufacture the Ultimate Kneeboard®. The company started in Eagle, Idaho as a family-run business that has proudly been handed down from one military officer to another.
Rick earned his private pilot’s license in 1980 at the age of 19. In 1986, he entered the Air Force Officer Training School, followed by Undergraduate Pilot Training at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. Rick graduated with a fighter pilot qualification and was asked to stay at Reese AFB as a T-37 instructor pilot. While there, he helped hundreds of young officers to earn their silver Air Force wings.
As the Persian Gulf War ended in the spring of 1991, Rick earned his civilian flight instructor rating. Students and fellow pilots asked Rick where they could get a kneeboard like the one he was using. Unable to find a comparable kneeboard on the civilian market, Rick decided to design a kneeboard of his own. After months of research and ideas from other pilots, Rick began to manufacture our Ultimate Kneeboard®. Modifications from Rick’s Air Force kneeboard were needed to accommodate the civilian pilot—most notably the seven-hole design to accept Jeppesen® charts.
Rick currently flies the Boeing 757 and 767s with Delta Air Lines. After 28 years of combined active duty and Air National Guard service, he retired from the Idaho Air National Guard in 2015. He has more than 16,000 hours, and over 2,000 as an instructor.
