When the British industrialist, Henry Kremer established his eponymous prize in 1959, he may have been surprised to hear that no one would manage to meet the precedent for earning it until 1977. To win, a human-powered aircraft had to be flown—in a figure-eight—around two markers set a half mile apart; flying at least 10 feet above the ground for the duration of the course.After more than 50 cracks at winning the prize (its value having grown to nearly $100,000 by 1976), an answer seemed to finally land in front of a clever aerodynamicist named Paul MacCready.Previous attempts were made using faster, more agile aircraft, which were inclined to be on the heavy-side and thereby depended upon more power to lift off. With that in mind, MacCready developed the Gossamer Condor, a lightweight, albeit cumbersome aircraft that would ultimately fly very slowly into the history books as the first-ever winner of the Kremer Prize. Modeled after the doleful glide of a vulture, the Gossamer Condor had a 96 foot wingspan and, because of its basic aluminium and mylar structure, weighed only 70 pounds.In 1979, MacCready won a second Kremer Prize for successfully crossing the English Channel with his Gossamer Albatross.
