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Gone West

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
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Captain John Miller, 1905-2008, has gone West.

Taught himself to fly in 1923 by reading "Aerobatics" by Capt. Horatio Barber; his last flight in his Bonanza was two years ago ... when he was only 100. Miller's life spanned the development of 20th century commercial aviation; he actually watched Glenn Curtiss fly down the Hudson River to NYC in 1910, watched Lindbergh fly off for Paris in 1927, developed downtown-to-airport airmail in Philadelphia (in a Kellett autogyro!), flew left seat in a Boeing 247, DC3, DC4, DC6, and Constellation, and retired from Eastern Airlines in 1963. After retirement he went back to "flying for fun".

https://www.eaa.org/news/2008/2008-06-24_miller.asp

https://frobbi.org/dcpa/JohnMiller.html (Capt. Miller tells his story)

2008-06-24_miller.jpg


John Miller, in 2002 when he was inducted into the Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame at the tender age of 97.
 
Wow!... Great American.
 
That's sad, sad news. Many of our friends and my dad, knew and worked with him in the airlines. We talked with him at Oshkosh about 15 years ago - sharp as a tack, a wealth of information, and a great guy.

Knowing the John Miller "story" makes his last words heart wrenching, he said <span style="font-style: italic">"I guess my flying days are over"</span>.

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Thanks Scott. He was an inspiration to several generations of pilots.

Just realized that he started with Eastern on its first DC-3's. He saw this logo every day he flew:

Eastern_Airlines_logo_on_plane.jpg


Times change. I kinda miss the old days of passenger flying. Bumpy air, slower flights, but service all over the country that brought a "flair" to aviation. Not the cattle calls of today. I'm beginning to think that for a *lot* of people these days, the "flying days are over" too.
 
Tom, is that Eastern logo on the DC-3 hanging in The National Air & Space Museum?

I took my class of A&P students on a field trip to that museum. One student asked if he could bring his dad. I said, "Sure!" (I broke a college rule).

Turns out his father worked on that very DC-3 at National way back when.

Aviation is a small world.
 
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