Paul MacCready (born 1925), known as the "father of human-powered flight," first gained fame when he won the Kremer Prize for inventing an aircraft powered solely by human effort. He went on to develop a solar-powered plane and car and a radio-controlled replica of a giant pterodactyl. MacCready helped develop the Impact demonstrator electric vehicle, which, in 1991, inspired California's zero-emissions mandate.

Paul MacCready was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on September 29, 1925. His father was a doctor, and his mother was a nurse. MacCready had a learning disability, dyslexia, about which he later said in an interview with Discover magazine, "It keeps my mind jumping. It also gives me a short attention span, which forces me to really focus on things that are important." Small, shy, and a poor athlete as a child, MacCready collected moths and butterflies and built model airplanes. "I think kids do better if they have...