Paul McCready has passed away
 

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
bio on the AeroVironment website
And BTW he has been mentionned in What Cockpit

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

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.

Mc Ready
 

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

You can post comments on the AeroVironment page linked to in my post.
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). 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

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