More With Less

In any physical system, efficiency is certainly one of the guiding principles of design.  I just pulled a book down from the ol' tech library and re-read it, pulling out new information like you always do when you go over something a second time.

That book is called, oddly enough "More With Less - Paul MacCready and The Dream Of Efficient Flight".  I picked it up out of the discount rack somewhere, which is too bad...it's a well written story.

As a little back story, Paul MacCready was the first to win the Kremer Prize for man-powered flight.  He also went on to found Aerovironment, which does work in a whole range of cutting-edge fields from battery technology to drone aircraft.

One thing that struck me the second time was MacCready's approach to problem-solving.  Just about everyone who had failed to win the Kremer Prize tried to make a man-powered aircraft look like, well, an aircraft.  MacCready didn't start there.  If you look at his Gossamer Condor design that won the prize, it truly is the "minimum viable product", to use a current buzzword.  Just enough Mylar shrink wrap and plastic tubing in the right arrangement to get the job done.

If you have a position to defend, you aren't open to alternative solutions.  Unfortunately we see that happen all the time, and it's crippling.  It's not enough to think outside the box - you have to ask why the box is square in the first place!