PEOPLE IN HELICOPTER HISTORY
BENCH MARKS
tests. Instead, he studied maintenance manuals on Liberty, OX-5 and Hispano- Suiza engines and passed the exam to earn his aircraft and engine license (A&P). That same year the Gates Flying Circus visited Poughkeepsie, and Miller got a job as their chief mechanic,
[The first plane I repaired] had a 400 hp B237 Liberty engine. At the end of the day it was blowing two valves. I took the two cylinders off and the camshaft. Every night after work I was in the machine shop, grinding them down by hand.”
When his job ended two months
later, Miller focused on restoring a wrecked J-1 New Standard in which he earned his pilot’s license from the CAA. Miller no longer needed to pretend. He became a genuine barnstormer, charging $1 per passenger. He later claimed that he made $40,000 in the summer of 1929, as the rest of the country fell into the Great Depression. Miller’s aerobatic exhibitions at air shows kept him busy, but in 1930 he was lured into the Marines as an aviator. From 1931 to 1933, Miller supplemented his income managing a small New York airport, strategically located near the Canadian border across which bootleg liquor could be flown. While also giving flying lessons he craved a new challenge. He did not have long to wait. In 1931, Miller ordered the first Pitcairn autogiro sold to an individual.
The “Missing Link” In a 2006 interview for Rotor magazine, Miller described purchasing Pitcairn’s Model PCA-2, informing the company that he intended to make the first U.S. transcontinental flight in an autogiro. Miller took hurried (but expert) flight instructions from Pitcairn’s staff at its factory in Pennsylvania. In his aircraft he named the “Missing Link,” he took off on May 14, 1931, for Omaha, NE, where he appeared in an air show. From Omaha, Miller recalled, “I kept on going, heading to the west coast.”
“Navigation was by magnetic compass, following landmarks such
as rivers or roads. There were no established radio communication, navigation aides, established routes or traffic control, and little available weather information.”
Prof. Bruce Charnov
“Rediscovering the Autogiro” Miller’s autogiro could fly at 100
mph, but he flew at 90 mph to conserve fuel and break in the Wright R-975-E, 330 hp, air-cooled radial engine. The fuel-thirsty autogiro required as many as 10 takeoffs and landings daily. Miller reached San Diego on May 28, 1931. His entire trip took 14 days, flying a total of approximately 44 hours. He made the return trip in less than 30 days. By odd coincidence, another aviator had decided to fly an autogiro at the same time, with the same navigational limitations, and with the same goal.
The Giant Green
Grasshopper In the spring of 1931, while recovering from surgery to remove her tonsils, newlywed Amelia Earhart informed Pitcairn that she intended to make the first transcontinental flight across the U.S. in an autogiro. Earhart had previously taken instructions at the Pitcairn factory and took the company aircraft up to 18,415 feet, setting an altitude record for an autogiro. Pitcairn foresaw major free publicity with Earhart’s attempted transcontinental flight, as did the Beechnut Chewing Gum Co. Within days Earhart accepted a contract to fly Beechnut’s autogiro, painted green to match its logo. Earhart called it her “flying billboard.” Earhart biographer Doris Rich dubbed it the “giant and fragile grasshopper.” Pitcairn had alerted Miller of
Earhart’s intentions before he set off for the west coast on May 15, 1931. Inexplicably, Earhart knew nothing of Miller’s plans. With mechanic Eddie de Vought,
Earhart took off for her transcontinental flight from New Jersey on May 29, 1931. Earhart’s trip took nine days. Only when she arrived at her destination in Oakland, CA, on June 6 did she
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