Lots of companies make products that don't have much in common, but AeroVironment specializes in two products that are very different — electric vehicle chargers, which keep cars like the Nissan Leaf on the road, and military drones. The Los Angeles-area firm is a leading manufacturer of small unmanned aircraft. This unusual company was the creation of one unusual individual, Paul MacCready. He loved things that fly. "As a youngster, I was very interested in model airplanes, ornithopters, autogyros, helicopters, gliders, power planes ..." MacCready said at a TED conference in 2003, four years before his death. But as obsessed as he was with flying things, MacCready never wanted to break the sound barrier like Chuck Yeager or buzz the control tower like Tom Cruise's character, Maverick, in Top Gun. MacCready loved nature, and his dream was to create birds — or re-create them. He founded AeroVironment in 1971 with that in mind. His designs were very light and flew incredibly slowly, with
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