Paul McCready has passed away

[the incivil beast]

Not sure if this is the right forum, but as he was not a professional pilot, one shall not take the rist to venture in R&N.
Even if he didn't work around big aluminium tubes, aviation owes him a lot
LA Times obituary (http://www.latimes.com/la-me-maccready30aug30,0,6041661.story?coll=la-home-center)
bio on the AeroVironment website (http://www.avinc.com/maccready)
And BTW he has been mentionned in What Cockpit (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2521370&postcount=2682)

[Saab Dastard]

I knew I recognised the name - thanks for posting the link.

Shame - great guy, one of the people who really did make a contribution.

SD

[oscarh]

I met Paul McCready way back in the very early fifties when he landed away whilst competing in the (world?) gliding championships from Great Hucklow.

I was about ten or eleven at the time and remember his all-metal glider which was a Scweitzer 1-23 I think. Anyway, the hero was very happy to talk to a young aeroplane-mad lad whilst awaiting his recovery team, which is why I remember him and his glider so well from those far-off days.

Thank you Paul, you were a part of the inspiration I had to escape my humble beginnings into the world of flying. I have retired now after many years as a professional pilot and trainer but you are long remembered by me and, I am sure by so many others. A gentleman and a visionary.

Should his family ever read these notes, I would like to offer them my sincere condolances and sympathy in their loss.

As a footnote, if anyone can correlate dates and type, I would be most interested.

[x10ge]

Yes and as an ex World champion he gave the gliding world a lot. Every glider pilot knows his name and obviously from his obit he gave the world a lot more than the Mcready Ring

[the incivil beast]

Should his family ever read these notes, I would like to offer them my sincere condolances and sympathy in their loss.You can post comments on the AeroVironment page linked to in my post.
As a footnote, if anyone can correlate dates and type, I would be most interested.It were indeed the World Gliding Championships which took place in Great Hucklow in 1954. Paul McCready was flying a Schweitzer 1-23E (Soaring magazine November-December 1954 (http://www.ssa.org/UsTeam/adobe%20pdf/1954%20WGC.pdf)). Incidentally the winner that year was a Frenchman, Gérard Pierre, who flew the same glider Paul McCready used in 1956, the Breguet 901.

BBC Archive (http://www.birth-of-tv.org/birth/assetView.do?asset=BIRTHOFTELEV19001___1108489512265)

[oscarh]

Thank you Mr Beast. Your links were most helpful and I much appreciate them.
Oscar