From the course: Universal Principles of Design

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Iteration

Iteration

From the course: Universal Principles of Design

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Iteration

- Hi, I'm William Lidwell and this is Universal Principles of Design. In this movie, iteration, how the long way can be the short way. In 1959, the industrialist Henry Kremer created a series of challenges and rewards centered on human-powered flight. It was basically the XPRIZE of its day. The first Kremer prize offered 50,000 pounds for the first human-powered plane to fly a figure eight around two markers one half mile apart. The challenge was formidable. Dozens of teams tried and failed for more than 17 years, each spending months designing and building their planes just to have them crash minutes after a test flight. Enter the aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready. MacCready knew that the big P problem was not making a human-powered plane but speeding up the design-build-test cycle to learn how to make a human-powered plane, replacing theory and conjecture with real-world testing. By focusing on designing a plane that could be rebuilt in hours versus months, MacCready enabled his…

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