More With Less

In the 1970s a group of California visionaries developed an interest in lightweight, low-powered machines. Scientist and engineer, Paul MacCready, pulled them together to build a plane capable of winning a long-standing prize for human powered flight. Their other successes included a man-powered plane, a solar powered plane, a solar-powered car, an 18-foot flapping wing flying replica of a pterodactyl for a Smithsonian-sponsored IMAX film, and a high-altitude unmanned solar airplane that can perform the same functions as orbiting satellites. Paul Ciotti tells the story of the individuals who made up this group, but ultimately More with Less is about Paul MacCready himself, an American dreamer whose tough minded inventiveness altered our scientific skyline.