In Passing

Ocala, Fla.

Arthur Jones, Nautilus inventor

Arthur Jones, the inventor of Nautilus exercise equipment, which revolutionized strength training by replacing the dead weight of barbells with a variable resistance technique, died Tuesday at his home in Ocala, Fla. No cause of death was reported. He was 80.

The creation was born of frustration. Living in the Tulsa YMCA in 1948, Jones routinely became irritated when the barbells and exercise regimes then in vogue failed to give him the big muscles he sought.

“I ended up with the arms and legs of a gorilla on the body of a spider monkey,” he told Forbes magazine in 1983. “I figured there was something wrong with the exercise tool.”

One day, instead of quitting when he reached a plateau, he cut his routine in half and was surprised to see results. Deducing that muscles need rest to recover and that leverage affects strength, he began experimenting. He introduced his product in 1970 at a Los Angeles weight-lifting convention and dubbed it the Nautilus, after the nautilus seashell, which resembles the kidney-shaped cam that was his breakthrough development.

The machines and the company he formed to sell them made him a multimillionaire.

Los Angeles

Paul MacCready, aviation innovator

Paul MacCready, the pioneering designer of the first fully capable human-powered flying machine, has died, a spokesman for the company he founded said Wednesday. He was 81.

MacCready was recently diagnosed with a serious ailment and died in his sleep Tuesday, said Steve Gitlin, a spokesman for AeroVironment Inc. of Monrovia, Calif., which MacCready founded in 1971. The family did not wish to disclose details.

On Aug. 23, 1977, the MacCready-designed, lightweight Gossamer Condor made the first sustained, controlled flight powered solely by a human. The flight, pedal-powered by pilot Bryan Allen, lasted just 7 1/2 minutes but covered a figure-eight course with pylons a half-mile apart at the airport in Shafter, Calif.

The plane, made of aluminum, foam, piano wires and Mylar – a lightweight but strong polyester material – weighed just 70 pounds.

The flight won MacCready the $95,000 Henry Kremer Prize, which had been established in 1959, and earned him the title “father of human-powered flight.”

MacCready, whose retirement as chairman of AeroVironment was announced Aug. 20, died less than a week after the 30th anniversary of the historic flight.