Paul MacCready

Paul ( Beattie ) MacCready ( born September 25, 1925 in New Haven, Connecticut; † August 28, 2007 in Pasadena, California ) was an American physicist, engineer and glider pilot. He devoted himself preferred topics from the field of aviation, but his work was not limited to this. He was founder and chairman of the company AeroVironment that the development and optimization of various products dedicated.

Life

MacCready studied physics at Yale University and at Caltech. In addition, he was a PhD in Aero boaters.

He was an active glider pilot and won the 1956 World Championship in the Open Class in the French St. Yan.

MacCready is considered one of the most important pioneers of flying with muscle strength. A Shared by him team won on August 23, 1977, the Gossamer Condor the first Kremer Prize for sustained controlled flight with muscle strength.

On 12 June 1979, was made with the Gossamer Albatross, the crossing of the English Channel.

On 7 July 1981, the crossing with the Solar Challenger was repeated using solar energy. The route from Paris to London was overcome in five hours and 23 minutes with the aid of about 20 square meters of solar cells for two electric motors.

There followed the Pathfinder aircraft.

In 1987, he and his team built the solar racing car Sunraycer and 1989, the electric racing cars GM Impact.

He steered the speed to fly theory in the so-called MacCready ring allows the use of the theory during a gliding without calculations.

2003 MacCready was awarded the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science.

The asteroid ( 24643 ) MacCready was named after him.