He received a B.S. in Physics from Yale in 1947, an M.S. in Physics from Caltech in 1948, and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics from Caltech in 1952. In 1977, his Gossamer Condor won the $95,000 award offered by British industrialist Henry Kremer for the first sustained, controlled human-powered fliqht. Two years later, its successor, the Gossamer Albatross, won aviation's largest prize, the $213,000 Kremer Award for a human-owered flight from England to France. In 1981, his DuPont-sponsored Solar Challenger carried a pilot 163 miles from Paris to England at 11,000 feet, powered solely by sunbeams. Another of his human-powered airplanes, the Bionic Bat, won two new Kremer speed prizes in 1984.

  Under the sponsorship of the National Air and Space Museum and Johnson Wax, his team developed a radio-controlled, wing-flapping, flying replica of a giant pterodactyl -- a creature from 70 million years ago with a 36-foot wing span. The replica is the key “actor” in a wide screen IMAX film, “On the Wing,” which connects biological flight to aircraft. In 1987, his group, working in conjunction with General Motors, built the GM Sunraycer, which won the solar car race across Australia (50 percent faster than the second-place vehicle). Next, the same team developed the GM-Impact, a battery-powered car with remarkable performance that became the catalyst or recent developments around the world in efficient battery-powered or alternatively-fueled vehicles. GM has announced that a commercial version of the Impact, called EV-1 will be mass produced in 1996.

  In 1995, the 0 solar-powered Pathfinder, a huge, remotely-piloted descendant of the Solar Challenger, reached the stratospheric altitude of 50,500 feet -- a step toward month-long flights in the stratosphere for environmental studies, surveillance, and telecommunications. The Gossamer Condor now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., beside the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer and Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. It is one of five vehicles developed by MacCready's teams that have been acquired by the Smithsonian. His company, AeroVironment Inc., provides services and products in the areas of environment, alternative energy, efficient vehicles for land, sea, and air.

TOPICS: Unleashing Creativity, Doing More With Much Less, Environment, Innovation & Technology

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