Dr. Paul B. MacCready, Jr. (Deceased) (1982)

Award Presented at The Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Missouri

Dr. Paul B. MacCready, Jr., earned the designation, "father of human-powered flight," in 1977, when his "Gossamer Condor" made the first sustained, controlled flight by a heavier-than-air craft powered solely by its pilot's muscles. Since then, various creations of Dr. MacCready's teams at AeroVironment, Inc., have followed the "doing more with less" theme: the human-powered "Gossamer Albatross" won aviation's largest cash prize by crossing the English Channel; the solar-powered "Solar Challenger", piloted 163 miles at an altitude of 11,000 feet from France to England; and, with GM, the "Sunraycer", which won the 1987 solar-powered car race across Australia, and the "Impact"; battery-powered car that GM will be tailoring into a mass production vehicle.

Check out AeroVironment for more information.