Johnny Miller (aviator)

John MacDonald Miller (15 December 1905 − 23 June 2008) was a barnstorming pilot, the first person to make a US transcontinental flight in a rotorcraft, the first to land a rotorcraft on the roof of a building, and the first to fly a scheduled US mail rotorcraft service.

He was also a test pilot and airline captain.

In 1915 Miller met and talked to famous aviator Ruth Law and sat in the cockpit of her Wright Model B aircraft.

He studied Horatio Barber's flying instruction book Aerobatics given to him by an uncle.

Miller took his first flight in a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny in the summer of 1922 at Asbury Park, New Jersey.

In 1923 a barnstorming pilot, Sloan "Swanee" Taylor, gave pleasure flights in a decrepit Jenny from a field near his home, and the 17-year-old Miller, who was working in a machine shop during school holidays, helped him with maintenance and repairs.

The aircraft was actually the Canadian version of the Jenny, a Canuck, but was modified with larger wings, giving slower take-offs and landings.

It was previously owned by Ruth Law, and had a brand new engine.

At the end of the season, Taylor gave Miller a 5-minute ride, then gave him the Jenny, saying that it would be cheaper to buy a new aircraft rather than repair this one.

In 1923 Miller read about the progress that Juan de la Cierva was making with autogyros in Madrid.

Miller wrote to him, and received two letters in return, explaining how autogyros work.

By the summer of 1924 he had finished, did more flights, mainly with the friends, and then sold it before starting college.

Miller made the trip to Roosevelt Field on 20 May 1927 to watch Charles Lindbergh take off on his pioneering transatlantic flight.

A month later he graduated from a mechanical engineering course at Pratt Institute of Technology in 1927, gained his A&P (airframe and powerplant) licence (no. 2906) and then worked for a while as a mechanic with Gates Flying Circus.

He gained his transport pilot's licence (no. 5945) in 1928 with the Curtiss School of Flight at Mineola, Long Island, New York, and did more barnstorming and pleasure flights with his four-passenger Standard J-1 which he had rebuilt over six months from a near-wreck.

In 1927 the mayor of Poughkeepsie, John Kelsey Sague (later to become Miller's father-in-law), established Poughkeepsie Airport at Red Oaks Mill to the south-east of the town, which in 1931 Miller took over and ran.

He established his company, Giro Flyers Ltd in the hangar there.

His main business was repair and maintenance of the aircraft, many of them New Standard models, used by bootleggers to bring alcohol in from Canada.

In 1929 Cierva had visited the US and sold the licence for his designs to Harold Pitcairn, forming the Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Company.

Miller's correspondence had continued, and he visited Pitcairn, soon ordering a PCA-2, becoming the first private individual in the US to purchase an autogyro, at a cost of $15,000.

He then formulated a plan to perform the first transcontinental autogyro flight, which he soon discovered would be in competition with Amelia Earhart, whose Pitcairn autogyro was sponsored by the Beech-Nut food company, then well known for its chewing gum.

In 1931 he acquired New Standard D-24 c/n102 registered NC193E.

Its fuselage had been damaged when Anthony Fokker wrecked a line of parked aircraft while landing his Express aircraft at Teterboro Airport,.

It was powered by a 180 hp Hispano-Suiza E engine.

Miller rebuilt it with a 220 hp Wright J-5 engine, turning it into a D-25.

Assisted by efficient ground crew to marshal the passengers and refuel the aircraft, he would do up to 350 short flights (less than a minute each) a day.

While doing aerobatics in the New Standard, Marine Corps officers saw him and invited him to join the Reserve at Pensacola, Florida, and he served for a while at Quantico, Virginia, as a qualified naval aviator.

Miller's interest in this lucrative business carried on until the end of prohibition in 1933, but the airport carried on until it was closed in 1938.

Miller sold the D-25 in 1935.

He started air racing in a Travel Air 2000.

He became the oldest active pilot in the US, making his first flight on his 18th birthday and ending at the age of 101.

He died aged 102.

John Miller was the first child of Theodore and Florence MacDonald Miller of Poughkeepsie, New York.

He had a sister, photo-reporter Elizabeth Lee and brother, Erik.

Theodore Miller was the manager of the De Laval Cream Separator Company, one of the largest businesses in the area, and Johnny attended a local preparatory school, Oakwood Friends School.

At the age of four Miller saw Glen Curtiss fly from a field opposite his father's farm as one of two permitted refuelling stops during his successful attempt to win the New York World newspaper prize of $10,000 for a flight from Albany to New York City, and decided to become a pilot.

After doing a lot of repairs to it himself, Miller practised on the ground for a few weeks, and on his 18th birthday found himself rapidly approaching a stone wall, so rather than crashing into it, he applied more power and took off.

After around an hour's flying, exploring the effect of the controls, he eventually managed a reasonable landing, whereupon a local farmer who had been watching him, asked him if he gave rides.

Miller said yes, and took him up for a handful of change, and on landing two other passers-by asked for rides, which he also did, charging $5 a flight, the amount painted on the side of the aircraft.

Miller did some more pleasure flights, then at Christmas he took it to a local barn and with the help of friends did extensive repairs.