The ''Gossamer Penguin'' was a solar-powered experimental aircraft created by

Paul MacCready Paul B. MacCready Jr. (September 25, 1925 – August 28, 2007) was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the first Kremer prize. He devoted his life to dev ...

's AeroVironment. MacCready, whose ''

Gossamer Condor The MacCready ''Gossamer Condor'' was the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight; as such, it won the Kremer prize in 1977. Its design was led by Paul MacCready of AeroVironment, Inc. Design and development ...

'' had made the first human-powered flight in 1977, told reporters two weeks in June, 1980 that "The first solar-powered flight ever made took place on May 18.""Plane flies on sun power", by Terrance W. McGarry, United Press International report in the ''Spokane (WA) Chronicle'', June 5, 1980, p12 The testing ground was at Minter Field outside of Shafter, California. The ''Penguin'' was a 3/4 scale version of the '' Gossamer Albatross II'', and had a 71 ft.(21.64 meter) wingspan and a weight, without pilot, of . The powerplant was an AstroFlight Astro-40 electric motor, driven by a 541 watt solar panel consisting of 3920 solar cells. Initial test flights were performed using a 28 cell NiCad battery pack instead of a panel. The test pilot for these flights was MacCready's 13-year-old son Marshall, who weighed . The official pilot for the project was Janice Brown, a charter pilot with commercial, instrument, and glider ratings who weighed slightly less than . She flew the ''Penguin'' approximately 40 times before a public demonstration at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on August 7, 1980.

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{{Photovoltaics AeroVironment aircraft Canard aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Solar-powered aircraft 1980s United States experimental aircraft Photovoltaics Aircraft first flown in 1979

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