No Hurdle Too High For Him; Air Innovator: MacCready's optimism helped push the aviation envelope.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: CURT SCHLEIER

Paul MacCready owes much of his success to bad debt -- and unlimited confidence.

He's a latter-day Daedalus, the character from Greek mythology who fashioned wings from feathers to escape prison. MacCready, too, wanted to fly using human power -- but for different reasons.

He co-signed a loan to help a relative start a business. When the company failed, he was responsible for the $100,000 debt.

"Daydreaming one day in 1976, he recalled that there was a cash prize for a successful human-powered flight: the Kremer Prize with an award of 50,000," wrote David E. Brown in "Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse."

"The Kremer Prize, in which I had no interest, was just equal to my debt. Suddenly human-powered flight seemed important," MacCready told Brown.

"Most people wouldn't consider building a human-powered aircraft to be a realistic way to try to earn money," MacCready told Mother Earth News. But he had faith that he could do it. "I believed that there was a darned good chance that the project would take just a little work and consume only a few hours on evenings and weekends."