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.

	R&D marketing manager Martyn Cowley, Paul MacCready, Senior Electrical-Mechanical Engineer Matt Keennon compare tiny, but operationally significant, battery-powered Micro Air Vehicles.
	Nearly undetectable at 6 inches square, Black Widow surveillance MAV flies 30 mph for half hour carrying a color video camera.
	With a 10-inch wingspan, this 1/2-ounce ornithopter has flown for 25 minutes on a battery charge.

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 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.

Widely used 9-foot-span, 8-1/2-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.

"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 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."

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 solar-powered 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 nine-inch 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.

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