Page 24 - DWV PROMO BOOK

Engineer of the Century

I was recruited by Paul MacCready after college. I attended a lecture he gave at MIT and met him afterwards. It didn’t take
long for him to decide he wanted me to work for him on a new bike product program for Huffy. He approached me later and
convinced me to pack up and drive to California to join his team. Paul MacCready was already a legend in the world of aviation
and engineering and he would continue to create amazing innovations for many years. One of his most famous, if not his most
lucrative, achievements was the Gossamer Albatross. This human-powered aircraft flew across the English Channel in 1979,
setting the bar for human-power, lightweight fabrication techniques and aerodynamics. Working for this gifted engineer, I was
surprised by the stories he occasionally told that gave a hint into the way his mind worked. One example was his challenge to a
group to truly think outside-the-box and solve problems based on the simplest and most elegant solutions rather than on the more
immediate and complex possibilities. He posed the hypothetical question: If water’s surface tension can float a needle, how can
you place a needle on water without breaking the surface tension? The elegant–and simple–method he divulged was this: Lay a
needle on a bowl of frozen water and let it melt. Simple! Paul was named Engineer of the Century by the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. – DW

1981 • Engineer of the Century, Paul MacCready, famous for the Gossamer Albatross and Gossamer Condor human-powered aircraft, recruits David to California