Monday, April 14, 2008

MIT professor Wilson designs bikes, builds businesses -- at 80

By Amber Gay

While other people may be spinning their wheels in life, turbine power entrepreneur and bicycle innovator David Wilson is still trying to go 80 mph at 80 years old. Most days, Wilson can be seen powering himself to work on the recumbent bicycle he designed.

Two decades ago, Wilson combined his background in engineering as a professor at MIT with his passion for bikes to revolutionize the design of recumbent bicycles, his preferred method of transportation. A recumbent bike's design allows a rider to sit back, as in a recliner, which causes less strain on the rider and, in turn, makes it easier for enthusiasts to stay active longer -- something Wilson achieved.

"I just turned 80, and I think I am more active than people who are 60 that don't have exercise," said Wilson, who is also co-founder of Wilson TurboPower Inc., a maker of high-efficiency heat exchangers and microturbines used in industrial processes and on-site power generation.

In the 1980s, while teaching mechanical engineering at MIT, Wilson and bike shop owners Richard Forrestall and Harald Maciejewski got together to develop a better bike, producing their first recumbent, the Avatar 2000. The low-to-the-ground design helped the Avatar 2000 break several speed records. The fastest recumbent bikes can now go more than 80 mph for a run up to 200 meters, Wilson said.

"When we developed and manufactured the series of recumbent bicycles, there were no other recumbents made commercially anywhere in the world," he said. "The Avatar 2000 was the only one produced for sale. (After) it won the world speed championship, within one year it became widely copied."

Wilson's design of the recumbent bike helped fellow two-wheel enthusiast Jeff Del Papa, a local tech veteran and now a motivational speaker who organized the first American team to compete on the British TV show known in the United States as "Junkyard Wars." Del Papa was on the verge of having to give up riding because of health reasons, but the recumbent bike design allowed him to continue riding.

"If Wilson hadn't brought it (the recumbent bike) from its death in the '30s, I certainly wouldn't still be riding today," he said. "I keep riding because of him."

Wilson's designs have also led Del Papa to design his own recumbent bikes for fun.

"After attending a seminar Wilson organized, I learned the single most expensive aspect in bike building is liability insurance," he said. "At that point, I realized I was not interested in the bike-building business, but that doing it for myself would be fun."

Long way to prove a point

Besides designing bikes, Wilson has a passion for riding them, and even at 80 he rides to and from the Woburn offices of Wilson TurboPower every day, except for when he has to bring another person. On those occasions, he uses a car like most of his fellow commuters.

He is no stranger to bicycling long distances, either. When he was 58 and a group of hikers considered him too old to hike in the White Mountains, he rode his homemade recumbent bike 160 miles from Boston to Pinkham Notch, N.H., to show them up.

Wilson has also published a book on bicycling; the first edition of "Bicycling Science" was released in 1974. A second edition was printed in 1982, and the MIT Press published a third edition in 2004.

"His (Wilson's) publications have been a unique and highly valuable resource in my career in bicycling as an author, advocate and expert witness," said John Allen, a former student of Wilson's at MIT.

Wilson began teaching mechanical engineering at MIT in 1971, and remains a professor emeritus there. He has taught gas-turbine design, turbo machinery design, thermal power systems design and occasionally thermodynamics. Wilson's passion for turbines, recumbent bicycles and teaching has kept him motivated over the years. He continues to ride to stay in shape and remain healthy.

"I enjoy it," he said. "I really look forward to each ride. It certainly keeps me fit."