From
Human to Solar Powered Flight
Paul
MacCready's company specializes in innovating efficient, alternatively-fueled
vehicles for land, sea, and air. In 1977, his Gossamer Condor won
the $95,000 award offered by British industrialist Henry Kremer
for the first sustained, controlled human-powered flight. MacCready
used aluminum tubes, balsa wood, cardboard, Mylar plastic, and piano
wire to construct a plane which had a 96-foot wingspan but weighed
only 70 pounds. It was powered by a single pedal-driven propeller,
and was steered by twisting the wing-tips. In 1977, MacCready's
Gossamer Condor made history by flying the 1-mile long, figure-8
route required by the Kremer prize, at about 10 feet of altitude
and a speed of 10 miles per hour. Two years later his Gossamer Albatross
flew across the English Channel. In 1981, his solar-powered Solar
Challenger airplane -- the world's first flew its pilot to
England from Paris. More recently, MacCready, whose interest in
ecology matches his interest in technology, has led the team that
developed the battery-powered "Impact" car for General
Motors (which they turned into the commercially available EV-1).
In
1998, his solar-powered Pathfinder II, a remotely-piloted descendant
of the Solar Challenger reached the stratospheric altitude of 80,200
feet. In 2001 AeroVironment's solar-powered 247-foot |