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Paul Beattie MacCready Jr. (September 25, 1925 – August 28, 2007) was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the first Kremer prize .
AeroVironment, Inc. is an American defense contractor headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, that designs and manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Paul B. MacCready Jr., a designer of human-powered aircraft, founded the company in 1971.
The aircraft was designed and built by a team led by Paul B. MacCready, a noted American aeronautics engineer, designer, and world soaring champion. Gossamer Albatross was his second human-powered aircraft, the first being the Gossamer Condor, which had won the first Kremer prize on August 23, 1977, by completing a 1-mile (1.6 km)-long figure-eight course.
In 1954, Paul MacCready described an Optimum Airspeed Selector, that he had been using since 1947. According to MacCready, the crosscountry airspeed selector is "a simple device that indicates the optimum speed at which a sailplane should be flown between thermals.
The first version, known by MacCready as the Pasadena version, was a proof-of-concept aircraft which flew only once, in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The first aircraft carrying the name Gossamer Condor was known as the Mojave version , without pilot fairings and other niceties, flown at Mojave airport by MacCready's sons on 26 ...
The first Kremer prize of £50,000 was won on 23 August 1977 by Dr. Paul MacCready when his Gossamer Condor, piloted by Bryan Allen, was the first human-powered aircraft to fly a figure eight around two markers one half mile apart, starting and ending the course at least 10 feet (3.0 m) above the ground. [3]
A month later, AeroVironment engineers concluded that a highly competitive car could be built within the time available. AeroVironment, led by Paul MacCready, was given the contract to build what would be called the Sunraycer. During the conceptual process, the goal was to create a very low-weight and ultra-low wind resistance vehicle.
The Gossamer Penguin was a solar-powered experimental aircraft created by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. [1] MacCready, whose Gossamer Condor in 1977 won the Kremer prize for human-powered flight, told reporters in June, 1980 that "The first solar-powered flight ever made took place on May 18."