Paul MacCready - Engineer of the Century
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - College Senior |
| Discipline(s): |
Aerospace Engineering |
| Learning Resource Type: | Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: | WWW |
| Author(s): | Academy of Achievement |
| Description: | Biography of Paul MacCready, Engineer of the Century. The website has a profile, a biography, interview and photo gallery. Paul MacCready Date of birth: September 25, 1925. Date of death: August 28, 2007. "Paul MacCready was born to well-to-do parents in New Haven, Connecticut. From an early age, he was an enthusiastic builder of model airplanes and gliders. Throughout his teens he won competitions and set records with flying models of his own design. He began flying in his teens, and received formal flight training in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, he earned a physics degree at Yale University and a doctorate in aeronautical engineering from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. At the same time, he took up soaring, that is, flying sailplanes or gliders as they are often called. He won U.S. soaring championships in 1948, 1948 and 1953, and represented the U.S. in international competition on four occasions. In 1956, he became the first American to win the world championship. He was the inventor of the MacCready Speed Ring, used by glider pilots the world over to select optimum flight speed. A debt MacCready incurred helping a relative in business difficulties inspired him to pursue the prize offered by British millionaire Henry Kremer and the Royal Aeronautical Society to the designer who could create a human-powered flying machine. For 18 years, the prize had gone unclaimed. MacCready's Gossamer Condor made history in 1977, when it flew a figure-eight course over a distance of 1.15 miles and became the first human-powered vehicle to achieve sustained, maneuverable flight. Kremer offered another prize of 100,000 British pounds for the first human-powered crossing of the English Channel. In 1979, the Condor's successor, the Gossamer Albatross, flew across the Channel, and won the second Kremer Prize. MacCready's Bionic Bat won a third Kremer Prize for human-powered air speed. The bat (short for battery) uses human power not only to power the aircraft directly, but to continually recharge a battery, which stores power for continued flight." |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | Paul MacCready, Kremer Prize, Condor Gossamer |
| Has Components |
Paul MacCready Photo Gallery |
| References |
The Kremer Competitions |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: | Great role model. |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
| Interactivity Level: | Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | 2007 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mac0bio-1 |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
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