Interview with Dr. Paul MacCready

As seen in the July 2003 issue of Model Aviation.

 

ENTER A large room, and an overwhelming presence along a wall is Pathfinder—one of the largest remote-controlled airplanes ever flown, once to an altitude of 86,000 feet. A sample rib hanging above a doorway and the transparent wing covering attest to its model-airplane heritage. As impressive as Pathfinder is, I learn that Helios, a still larger version with a 247-foot wingspan, reached 96,863 feet in 2001—an altitude more than two miles higher than any airplane has flown continuously.

 

 

A bit later I find myself sitting in a workshop surrounded by miniature aircraft, most with wingspans of just a few inches. These state-of-the-art, radio-controlled airplanes are capable of near-silent flight. Recently one tiny ornithopter, built to evaluate small flapping-wing propulsion, flew an astounding 22 minutes  and 45 seconds, setting a world endurance record for this type of aircraft.

 

These aircraft represent the other end of a continuum of flying machines produced by AeroVironment: a California-based research and development firm dedicated to exploring new frontiers of science and technology.

 

The man behind these aircraft and many similar projects is Dr. Paul B. MacCready: a lifelong modeler, aeronautical engineer, and visionary whose work for more than 25 years has been focused on how to do more with much less, and that’s his challenge to Americans. I spent a morning with him and two of  his staff members in AeroVironment’s Simi Valley, California, facility—the hub of the company’s aeronautical work.

 

 

Paul’s accomplishments have been documented in numerous popular magazines and professional journals since he began his flying career as a young man competing in model-aviation events.

 

My interest in talking with him was sparked by presentations he has given each year at the Academy of Model Aeronautics’ annual convention in Pasadena, California. When the opportunity to interview him for Model Aviation came my way, I jumped at the chance to visit his facility and to talk with him  about his work. I was interested in his aeronautical research, much of which began with model airplanes, and his thoughts about educating young people for an uncertain future in a fragile world.

 

Paul began his career in aviation in the early 1930s, building model airplanes and winning contests, sometimes with aircraft of his own design. He started his professional career at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) in physics. Paul flew full-scale power before World War II and entered training  as a naval aviator, but the war ended before he finished pilot training.

 

He finished his bachelor of science degree in physics at Yale and went to Cal Tech for a master of science degree in physics, and he holds a doctorate in aeronautics.

 

“I had the feeling that aeronautics was a field that was endlessly diverse and from which I could learn anything,” he said.

 

Paul flew lightplanes (singles and twins) to do high-altitude meteorological research, seeding clouds to make rain. Eventually he was limited by his success; although many people appreciated the rain, the threat of lawsuits from those who might have been injured by a storm became a deterrent to further work in the field.

 

However, his early work on meteorological research coupled with his interest in competitive soaring led him to three national soaring titles and an international victory.

 

Paul founded AeroVironment in the early 1970s. The company became dedicated to making a significant contribution to a world that would work with greater efficiency, using fewer natural resources and producing less pollution.

 

Five of Paul’s aircraft are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection (see below), and now a portion of his staff’s work has been extended to solar and wind power, research in rechargeable battery and storage technologies, and developing the infrastructure for energy transfer and management.

 

In spite of these accomplishments, Paul continues to be concerned about the lack of national leadership in addressing the energy resources of a rapidly changing world. He stressed the following.

 

He is also concerned about the number of people the planet can support. He worries about a world population that has grown to a total in excess of six billion people when the demand for resources in a natural world cannot sustain more than a population of two billion. He believes that, in general, European  countries have addressed issues in population growth and energy consumption more forcefully. He said:

 

However, Paul is optimistic about the future of modeling. “There is hope for kids and hope for the hobby,” he said. “Getting into aeronautics today is more exciting than ever.”

 

He has spent a lifetime using models for his research as “proof-of-concept” vehicles before building full-scale prototypes. The Gossamer Condor—winner of the first Kremer prize in 1977—and the Sunraycer—winner of the trans-Australian solar-powered car race in 1987—were tested first as models, as were  almost all of AeroVironment’s vehicle designs. Paul noted:

 

The Simi Valley aviation facility is divided into two parts: the large-scale work (Helios and Pathfinder solar-powered aircraft) and small scale (Pointer and Black Widow mini and micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [UAVs]). Most of the work focused on the larger aircraft at first, but now the work with small UAVs  is roughly equal to that of the larger craft. Now there is so much interest in small UAVs that the distinction between full scale and models is disappearing.

 

 

“Two years ago we couldn’t sell the idea of UAVs to the Air Force,” said Paul. “They weren’t interested. Now they are very interested.”

 

Some of the most exciting recent work the AeroVironment staff has done focuses on models, using new technologies to make it possible for surveillance aircraft to be flown by novice pilots in the field. I visited a shop at the Simi Valley facility where an order of several dozen Pointer aircraft were being  constructed for the US military, which is increasingly interested in using unmanned aircraft to assist ground troops in intelligence-gathering activities.

 

These aircraft, with wingspans of less than three meters and equipped with television cameras transmitting real-time images, are hand-launched from battlefield positions to gather information. After completing missions, the aircraft are returned for safe landings by inexperienced pilots in sort of low-altitude  belly flops.

 

After spending an hour or so with Paul, he introduced me to two of his staff members who are developing the microlight aircraft. Matt Keennon, who has been with AeroVironment since 1996, is the guru of the microlight department.

 

Matt got his early inspiration and training from Bill Warner, a public-school teacher who taught a modeling course as an elective. The class built a series of standard models (a hand-launched glider and a rubber-powered model with a stick fuselage), enabling students to understand how selected variables  affect flight. He would remove the dihedral and parts of the empennage, and ask the students to correct problems he created.

 

Since earning a physics degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, Matt has developed many of the small-scale aircraft for AeroVironment. He pointed out:

 

Matt also noted that a great deal of internal mentoring takes place at AeroVironment. “If you want to learn electronics, you have an opportunity to pursue electronics and to be mentored by experts along the way,” he said.

 

One of these mentors is Martyn Cowley, who has been with AeroVironment since 1980. Martyn met Paul in England during his development of the Gossamer Albatross for the flight over the English Channel. A native of Great Britain, Martyn followed Paul to the US and has been with AeroVironment ever since.

 

Martyn started his modeling career as a Free Flighter (winning many UK and US national titles in the process), and he began working with Paul at AeroVironment because of the unique challenges presented in human-powered flight. As do so many others, Martyn laments the difficulty that young people  currently have in pursuing the hobby and sport of model aviation. He said:

 

Martyn frequently uses models as proof-of-concept design tools before moving on to full scale. “If it works at a small scale level, it works even better when you scale it up,” he said. He also believes the process modelers go through to complete a project makes them an “Aircraft Factory of One,” as he calls  it. He went on to say:

 

As the world prepares to celebrate the centennial of the Wright brothers’ flight later this year, people such as Paul MacCready, Matt Keennon, Martyn Cowley, and their colleagues continue in the tradition the Wright brothers began in Dayton, Ohio, a century ago. They use models as prototypes to push  the aeronautical envelope in ways that may not seem to have any practical value initially.

 

However, as Benjamin Franklin remarked when asked what the use of a balloon was in the early 1780s, “What is the use of a newborn infant?”

 

The Wright brothers’ spirit continues to this day and will be a source of the country’s strength as we face the challenges of a new millennium. Certainly, “doing more with much less” will become more than the motto of AeroVironment as the world is forced to learn how to use technology more efficiently. 

 

Read Dr. MacCready's History Project Biography.

 

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AeroVironment Vehicles/Models
Selected for Permanent Collections
in the Smithsonian Institution

In 1977 the Gossamer Condor won the Kremer prize for the first controlled, human-powered-airplane flight.

The Gossamer Albatross won a second Kremer prize for a human-powered flight across the English Channel in 1979.

In 1981 the Solar Challenger achieved the first solar-powered flight across the English Channel.

The Sunraycer won the first trans- Australian solar-powered car race in 41⁄2 days—two days ahead of its nearest competitor—in 1987.

Quetzacoatlus Northropi (QN) replicated the flight of the largest winged dinosaur—the 36-footwingspan pterodactyl—for an IMAX movie in 1985.