Some of MacCready's work as a graduate student involved cloud seeding, and he was an early pioneer of the use of aircraft to study meteorological phenomena.

[2] He started gliding after World War II and was a three-time winner (1948, 1949, 1953) of the Richard C. du Pont Memorial Trophy,[6] awarded annually to the U.S. National Open Class Soaring Champion.

The award-winning plane was constructed of aluminium tubing, plastic foam, piano wire, bicycle parts, and mylar foil for covering.

MacCready took up the challenge and in 1979, he built the Condor's successor, the Gossamer Albatross, and won the second Kremer prize, successfully flying from England to France.

[19] He was the founder (in 1971) and Chairman of AeroVironment Inc., a public company (AVAV) that develops unmanned surveillance aircraft and advanced power systems.

"Environmentally conscious, technologically clever, and culturally grand, Paul wanted to change the world through reason, intelligence, and creativity", Shermer wrote of him in an obituary.

Michael Shermer described his delivery as "completely unpretentious, conversing in the same manner whether he was talking to a room full of undergraduate students or Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners.

"[70] In February 1998, MacCready spoke at a TED conference on the topic of nature versus humans, continuing his environmental theme of "doing more with less".

[71] And in February, 2003 he delivered another TED talk entitled "A Flight on Solar Wings"[72] Over billions of years on a unique sphere, chance has painted a thin covering of life -- complex, improbable, wonderful and fragile.

Suddenly, we humans, (a recently arrived species, no longer subject to the checks and balances inherent in nature), have grown in population, technology and intelligence to a position of terrible power: we now wield the paintbrush.