barnstorm2
07-21-2008, 08:04 AM
HAI is Saddened by the Passing of John M. Miller, Helicopter Pioneer
HAI is Saddened by the Passing of John M. Miller, Helicopter Pioneer
Monday, July 21, 2008 - HAI
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Helicopter Association International sadly reports the recent passing of a giant in the rotorcraft industry and aviation history.
Born John McDonald Miller, on December 15, 1905 in Poughkeepsie, New York, he was four and a half years old, when he saw Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a pilot and fellow New Yorker, from Hammondsport, flying a specially built airplane, with bamboo outriggers in front and back. Curtiss was flying on a run from Albany, New York to New York City for a $10,000 prize offered by the New York World newspaper.
Curtiss, in his Hudson Flyer took just over three hours to complete the 152-mile flight— entirely over the Hudson River. It was the longest flight on record, and the first airplane flight within the city limits of New York. Curtiss built the plane specifically for this flight. He was allowed two refuel stops, and made one of them right across the road from Miller’s home.
Miller’s father took him across the road to see the aircraft. Miller would later say, “I was so impressed when I saw that flying machine take off and fly down the river. Then and there, I lost all interest in becoming a steam locomotive engineer. I made up my mind to become pilot.”
His flying career began on December 15, 1923, when he flew solo on his birthday. He continued to fly right up until shortly before his passing. Miller liked to say he flew from Jennys to jets. While a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, he met Charles Lindbergh in 1927 and watched him make his historic flight from New York to Paris on May 20, 1927.
He was a member of the Gates Flying Circus and barnstormed across the country. In 1931 he bested Amelia Earhart in a transcontinental autogiro race, despite Earhart’s earlier start advantage. Miller also worked as a test pilot for the Kellett Air Company and was part of an experimental project flying post office deliveries landing on rooftops. Miller estimated he had performed between 2,500 to 3,000 landings and takeoffs, often under extraordinary wind conditions.
Miller was a Captain for Eastern for 25 years, and flew all types of aircraft, including the DC2, DC3, DC4, DC7, four types of Constellations, and a Lockheed Electra.
Miller also flew helicopters. After retiring from Eastern he bought a Bell 47G-3 and operated under Part 135, doing police work for several years for various sheriffs departments in the Poughkeepsie vicinity of New York. He flew search and rescue and transported shackled criminals to prison. He once rescued two boys off of ice cakes in the Hudson River. His other helicopter work included flying in orchards to protect crops from freezing and powerline patrol.
HAI is grateful to John Miller for his contributions to the rotorcraft industry, and extends its sympathy to his family and many friends. He will truly be missed by an industry that he helped to shape.
John M. Miller and HAI's Martin Pociask together in Poughkeepsie for their 2006 interview
To learn more about this aviation pioneer, please click here, to read an interview with John Miller.
http://www.rotormagazine.org/Portals/24/pdf/winter2006_7/61.pdf
The interview is a compilation based on a lengthy interview with Martin J. Pociask, HAI’s Communications Director and Editor of ROTOR magazine at the aviator’s home in Poughkeepsie, New York on October 26, 2006, and at a Quiet Birdmen dinner presentation later that same evening, and several subsequent telephone conversations with Mr. Miller.
The interview was featured in the winter 2006-2007 issue of ROTOR magazine. The interview also contains some extracts from an interview given by Mr. Miller to former Helicopter Foundation International Curator, John Slattery, on February 16, 1998 at HELI-EXPO in Anaheim, California.
http://www.verticalmag.com/control/news/articlefiles/8174-1.jpg
http://www.verticalmag.com/control/news/articlefiles/8174-2.jpg
HAI is Saddened by the Passing of John M. Miller, Helicopter Pioneer
Monday, July 21, 2008 - HAI
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helicopter Association International sadly reports the recent passing of a giant in the rotorcraft industry and aviation history.
Born John McDonald Miller, on December 15, 1905 in Poughkeepsie, New York, he was four and a half years old, when he saw Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a pilot and fellow New Yorker, from Hammondsport, flying a specially built airplane, with bamboo outriggers in front and back. Curtiss was flying on a run from Albany, New York to New York City for a $10,000 prize offered by the New York World newspaper.
Curtiss, in his Hudson Flyer took just over three hours to complete the 152-mile flight— entirely over the Hudson River. It was the longest flight on record, and the first airplane flight within the city limits of New York. Curtiss built the plane specifically for this flight. He was allowed two refuel stops, and made one of them right across the road from Miller’s home.
Miller’s father took him across the road to see the aircraft. Miller would later say, “I was so impressed when I saw that flying machine take off and fly down the river. Then and there, I lost all interest in becoming a steam locomotive engineer. I made up my mind to become pilot.”
His flying career began on December 15, 1923, when he flew solo on his birthday. He continued to fly right up until shortly before his passing. Miller liked to say he flew from Jennys to jets. While a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, he met Charles Lindbergh in 1927 and watched him make his historic flight from New York to Paris on May 20, 1927.
He was a member of the Gates Flying Circus and barnstormed across the country. In 1931 he bested Amelia Earhart in a transcontinental autogiro race, despite Earhart’s earlier start advantage. Miller also worked as a test pilot for the Kellett Air Company and was part of an experimental project flying post office deliveries landing on rooftops. Miller estimated he had performed between 2,500 to 3,000 landings and takeoffs, often under extraordinary wind conditions.
Miller was a Captain for Eastern for 25 years, and flew all types of aircraft, including the DC2, DC3, DC4, DC7, four types of Constellations, and a Lockheed Electra.
Miller also flew helicopters. After retiring from Eastern he bought a Bell 47G-3 and operated under Part 135, doing police work for several years for various sheriffs departments in the Poughkeepsie vicinity of New York. He flew search and rescue and transported shackled criminals to prison. He once rescued two boys off of ice cakes in the Hudson River. His other helicopter work included flying in orchards to protect crops from freezing and powerline patrol.
HAI is grateful to John Miller for his contributions to the rotorcraft industry, and extends its sympathy to his family and many friends. He will truly be missed by an industry that he helped to shape.
John M. Miller and HAI's Martin Pociask together in Poughkeepsie for their 2006 interview
To learn more about this aviation pioneer, please click here, to read an interview with John Miller.
http://www.rotormagazine.org/Portals/24/pdf/winter2006_7/61.pdf
The interview is a compilation based on a lengthy interview with Martin J. Pociask, HAI’s Communications Director and Editor of ROTOR magazine at the aviator’s home in Poughkeepsie, New York on October 26, 2006, and at a Quiet Birdmen dinner presentation later that same evening, and several subsequent telephone conversations with Mr. Miller.
The interview was featured in the winter 2006-2007 issue of ROTOR magazine. The interview also contains some extracts from an interview given by Mr. Miller to former Helicopter Foundation International Curator, John Slattery, on February 16, 1998 at HELI-EXPO in Anaheim, California.
http://www.verticalmag.com/control/news/articlefiles/8174-1.jpg
http://www.verticalmag.com/control/news/articlefiles/8174-2.jpg