Interview with Dr. Paul MacCready

July 2003 41
I ENTER A large room, and an
overwhelming presence along a wall is
Pathfinder—one of the largest remotecontrolled
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
sidebar), 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
Interview with
Dr. Paul MacCready
The 247-foot-span Helios prototype at start of amazing
2001 solar-powered flight to 96,863 feet. It’s being
groomed with H2 energy storage for long, multidayduration
flights at 60,000-65,000 feet.
Earlier Pathfinder Plus version, spanning 120 feet, is sent to 60,000 feet to study
communication techniques carrying various commercial telecom payloads.
Lifelong modeler and aeronautical engineer challenges
Americans to “do more with much less”
■ Gordon Schimmel
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.
“Currently the US is completely ignoring policies that would
make us less dependent on oil and the effects it has on global
pollution. It appears that the predictions for the decline in oil
production are accurate. In 25 years the world will be very different
from the one we live in today, in terms of energy consumption. As
resources become scarce, military and some commercial aviation
will have priority in oil use, which means its use for other purposes
will be very limited.
“It is sometimes hard to be optimistic when we continue to live
off the ‘principal’ of the world’s energy resources, rather than
pursue policies that would permit us to live in a reasonable manner
off the ‘interest.’”
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
Nearly undetectable at 6 inches square, Black Widow surveillance
MAV flies 30 mph for half hour carrying color video camera.
With a 10-inch wingspan, this 1⁄2-ounce ornithopter has
flown for 25 minutes on a battery charge.
Widely used 9-foot-span, 81⁄2-pound Pointer surveillance UAV is
hand launched, and was later recovered after full stall, nearly
vertical landing. It has daylight color and/or nighttime infrared IR
video camera. Modern batteries permit quiet flight which can
exceed four hours.
L-R: R&D marketing manager Martyn Cowley, Paul MacCready,
Senior Electrical-Mechanical Engineer Matt Keennon compare tiny,
but operationally significant, battery-powered Micro Air Vehicles.
addressed issues in population growth and energy consumption
more forcefully. He said:
“The population in most European countries has not increased in
recent years and, as we know, auto gas sells there for somewhere
between four and five dollars a gallon. In the US we just continue to
build bigger, more gas-guzzling vehicles. There was a time, not too
long ago, when reducing drag on automobiles was high priority.
Unfortunately Japan now seems to be far ahead of us on this.”
42 MODEL AVIATION
AeroVironment Vehicles/Models
Selected for Permanent Collections
in the Smithsonian Institution
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 solarpowered
car race in 1987—were tested first
as models, as were almost all of
AeroVironment’s vehicle designs. Paul
noted:
“Modeling continues to be terrific
training for young people, a great
introduction to engineering now being taken
seriously by the military. The hobby and
sport of modeling always has been a process
of sharing ideas back and forth, driven by
changes in technology. For example,
because servos have decreased dramatically
in size and weight, AeroVironment’s nineinch
wingspan, electric-powered ornithopter
now has flown for over six minutes!”
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
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.
June 2003 45
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:
“Micro-stuff is suddenly hot! As flying
fields become problematic, park flyers and
indoor ‘RC’ is becoming very popular. The
quality of the technology is improving and
people can buy great equipment right off
the shelf. Paul hires the best modelers and
engineers from around the world, and I am
lucky to be working with such a great
group of people.”
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:
“Kids need to be able to fly within
walking distance, and sometimes it is
illegal even to fly in a public park! Kids
today have far too many distractions; they
need to be able to fly models locally, as
opposed to traveling to a remote flying site.
They can experiment to find out what
works and what doesn’t, and they can learn
from their peers.”
Martyn frequently uses models as proofof-
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:
“Modelers are used to problem-solving.
You learn how to solve problems when
things are not working. Modelers routinely
go through several steps in this process:
design, drafting, structural engineering,
planning for cost control, building, serving
as a test pilot, and performing the routines
of maintenance. All of these steps are great
training for program-management work on
any full-scale project.”
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. MA
Gordon Schimmel
62 Charles Ln.
Storrs CT 06268