ROY MORGAN Helicopter air ambulance innovator.


Roy Morgan was born in Monte Vista, Colorado, on Sep. 16, 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression. His early years were difficult. “By the time I was nine years old,” he told HAI in a 2016 interview, “I found out that if you are hungry, you had better get a job.” As a freshman in high school, he was living on his own, supporting himself with jobs at a grocery store, as a bus driver, and working part-time for Dow Chemical in the company’s oil fields. After graduating from high school, Morgan moved


to Torrington, Wyoming, to work on an oil rig next to an airport. While there, he bought his first aircraft—a Piper J-3 Cub—for $750 with no money down, a purchase that included flying lessons. His first solo flight took place on Jul. 17, 1955.


with the best medical equipment available, that is what I wanted to do,” he told HAI. By the time he left Key


Aviation in 1969, Morgan had obtained his airline transport pilot (ATP) multiengine land, airplane commercial instrument, single-engine land and sea, commercial glider, and commercial and instrument helicopter certificates. Over the next 11 years, Morgan worked for Public


Service Corp. on power-line construction, patrol, and line-maintenance operations, flying as many as 1,000 hours a year. But he was drawn to the public benefits of medical helicopter service. So, in 1980, Morgan founded Air Methods Corp. To raise the money to buy a helicopter and start the business, he mortgaged his home, emptied his bank account, and “sold everything we could do without,” he said. Te company, which was acquired by American Securities in 2017, today operates a fleet of more than 450 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft with a staff of over 5,000 people, conducting more than 100,000 transports a year in 49 states. Morgan was inducted into the


Air Methods - Mercy Air Airbus Eurocopter EC135 | ©MarkMennie Over the next 15 years, Morgan worked for Boeing,


General Dynamics, and Key Aviation. His first solo helicopter flight took place on Mar. 17, 1965, in a Hughes 300. During a shift as an on-call charter pilot, Morgan


responded to a car accident in a remote part of Utah and rescued two people. “I swore if I could ever be involved with a first-class medical team in an aircraft


148ROTOR SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE


Vertical Flight Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014, and he also received


the Living Legends of Aviation Award in 2014. Morgan has accumulated more than 12,000 hours flying helicopters. When asked for his advice for the next generation


interested in becoming helicopter pilots and maintenance professionals, particularly in air medical operations, Morgan told HAI, “Impossible isn’t, if you do not know it is impossible.”


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