I learned of the recent death of inventor Paul MacCready at the age of 81. Founder of the company AeroVironment, MacCready created a human powered aircraft called the Gossamer Condor. Later, he created a solar-powered aircraft called the Gossamer Penguin. Another solar -powered aircraft called the Solar Challenger flew 163 miles. A solar-powered car called the Sunraycer came in first in a 1867 mile race across Australia.
I met MacCready at the Eris Society meetings www.erissociety.org in Aspen in the early Nineties. He spoke about energy and showed film of the various projects he had brought to successful conclusions. I asked him about batteries and learned to my suprise the shocking inefficiency of batteries in converting the stored energy to usable power was at the rate of less than 20%.
It was wonderful to have met such a creative, rational man.
Why do the news media devote so much attention to nobodies like Paris Hilton and so little to rational achievers like Paul MacCready? No wonder school children do so poorly in math and science.
The early years of space exploration and the perhaps excessive hero-worship of the astronauts made science and math come alive for many in my generation before the Sixties made science and technology dirty words for all too many.
Let our spirits, dreams and thoughts soar to greatness. Let us apply reason to our endeavors and our human problems.
About the author: Richard Cooper is the former chair of the Libertarian Party of New York www.ny.lp.org and blogs at www.mythsmasher.blogspot.com.
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