More With Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight [Hardcover]

Paul Ciotti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the 1970s, when most aeronautics designers were interested in bigger and more powerful planes, engineer and all-around mad visionary Paul MacCready was obsessed with man-powered flight. L.A. Times writer Paul Ciotti has written a biography of MacCready, who built not only the Gossamer Condor, an award-winning man-powered plane, but also solar-powered planes and cars. More With Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight traces the sources of MacCready's inspiration and describes the community of maverick engineers and designers concentrated in Southern California (where MacCready worked). Threaded through the book are interviews with MacCready himself, who continues to work today and is particularly interested in renewable-resource technology.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This is a wonderful, vivid recreation of the planned and unplanned nature of technological advance..." -- James Fallows, "Free Flight"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 251 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554503
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554504
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too Little About More With Less, October 20, 2002

By 

Bruce Crocker "agnostictrickster" (Whittier, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More With Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight (Hardcover)

I've had the pleasure of hiking into the San Gabriel Mountains with Paul MacCready. I've gone to lectures at Caltech where MacCready was in the audience and I've looked on his [ever present] notebooks with wonder. More With Less is a good read and a quick read, but it left me wanting a full-fledged biography of Paul MacCready AND a more complete volume on efficiency in this high tech world. Despite this, I enjoyed Paul Ciotti's take on both subjects. As an introduction to both subjects, More With Less does a very good job. If you are looking for a more detailed book on either subject, my guess is that you'll be disappointed.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at aviation, October 2, 2002

By 

Eric B. Norris (Santa Clara, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More With Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight (Hardcover)

I had hoped "More with Less" would be an in-depth biography of Dr. Paul MacCready, former National Soaring Champion, designer of the Gossamer Albatross and Gossamer Condor, and engineer extraordinaire. It's not. The book focusses on MacCready only as a central figure in the evolution of efficient flight. The author spends far more time talking about other people and things (like the southern California hang-gliding scene in the 70s) than he does tracing MacCready's life. There is very little here for hungry little glider pilots like me that want to read in depth about MacCready's adventures in the beautiful Orlik sailplane, his contest successes, etc. That is the bad news. The good news is that the author weaves a fascinating tale of the people and machines (albeit with little technical detail) involved in this corner of the flying world. The author describes the people in the book candidly, warts and all. Not knowing any of these people I can't vouch for his accuracy, but he paints far more interesting portraits than the "hero engineer" so often presented in this kind of book, and it is this aspect that makes the book so interesting to read. The illustrations are terribly reproduced, mislabled in at least one case, and there are far too few of them! I know from seeing two of Paul MacCready's slide shows that there are many great photographs in existence that could have and should have been used in this book. That aside, anyone interested in flying machines that do more with less, and the people who design, build, and fly them, will enjoy reading this book.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Museum of Flight Docent's review, June 10, 2008

By 

Jay A. Anema "J Anema" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More With Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight (Paperback)

More with Less provides details and picture not included in the book on the Gossamer airplanes. I was especially intrigued by the statement that the plane that made the channel crossing was the 'dirty' airplane'; not the 'clean' one. The Gossamer Albatross hanging at The Museum of Flight (MOF) in Seattle is billed as the backup for the plane that made the successful crossing. Is the MOF plane then the 'clean' version? The book includes interesting items about Paul MacCready that added to my knowledge as a Docent.

MOF Docent