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Classic Wings Magazine WWII Naval Aviation Research Pacific Luftwaffe Resource Center
When Hollywood Ruled The Skies - Volumes 1 through 4 by Bruce Oriss


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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2012 4:41 pm 
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I was at my brother's house in upstate NY on Saturday for a cookout when one of the other people attending happened to say that he and his wife had stopped at a local antique store that morning for a browse. Said that they had some interesting stuff there, antique tools, some old autogiro parts, old farm stuff... wait a second, back up, what??! Autogiro parts??!! I thought they must be old Benson gyrocopter stuff or something like that, but we jumped in the car and drove the 3 miles to the place, and sure enough, there they were, a couple of chunks of what I recognized as Pitcairn PCA-2 rotor blades circa 1931. I took them to the front of the store to buy them and asked the owner if he had any idea where they came from. "Yes, they came from the estate of a guy named Johnny Miller..." Wow! I knew Johnny Miller, and he was one of the most famous autogiro pilots, first to fly one coast to coast, and one of the few to peform aerobatics in them. They must've been leftovers after an accident, and the only accident I know of that Johnny had was at the 1932 Cleveland Air Races while he was doing a comedy dogfight with Al Wilson in a Curtiss Pusher. On landing Wilson flew into Johnny's rotor blades and was killed, these are probably the remains of one of those rotor blades, which would've also been the ones used on the transcontinental flight.

Image

30 years of stopping at antique stores during my travels and I've bought maybe 5 things, and none of them anywhere near this neat. Found a Tiger Moth compass once, and bought an antique typewriter for my journalist girlfriend, but Johnny Miller's autogiro blades? Whew!

In better times:

Image

After the crash:

Image

Video of the crash here, click on "1932 Wilson-Miller Dogfight":

http://www.dmairfield.com/flvs/film_fee ... eeder.html

And info on Johnny: http://www.dmairfield.com/people/miller_jm/index.htm




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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2012 6:00 pm 
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Way cool. Gotta be one of the best finds I have ever heard of! I have been going to antique stores for most of my life and still visit them often. Thats where most of my aviation book and airplane manual collection came from. You never know what you might find!

Are they hanging in the living room yet?

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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2012 6:05 pm 
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Nice score!!!


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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2012 8:21 pm 
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So if you don't mind my asking...


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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 11:01 am 
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WOW!!!! Johnny Miller was one of the first people I ever interviewed for the Timeless Voices program! One of my absolute favorite aviation personalities. Super find Andrew!!! I'm glad they ended up in someone's hands who will take care of them properly.

Zack

PS: Here's an edit of his Timeless Voices interview to give folks an idea of who we are talking about - http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1519675124

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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 1:25 pm 
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Captain Miller and I shared a hangar at POU.

Amelia Earhart also had an accident in that same Pitcairn, by the way...don't know if it splintered the blades.


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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 1:30 pm 
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I'm almost 100% certain (so make it 99.9%) that the PCA-2 that A.E. crashed was serial number 12, whereas Johnny's was serial number 13.

Zack

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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 1:36 pm 
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Yes, i think you're 100 percent right. I thought she'd borrowed John's aircraft, but I now seem to remember they were pretty much in competition with each other.


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PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2012 1:17 am 
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Obviously, they are fakes. I will send you my address and I will properly dispose of them for you. Your welcome... :wink:

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PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 4:49 am 
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Wow, that's REALLY neat. Andrew, you have an e-mail re- Giros, and no I'm not buying or selling for those snickering in the cheap seats...

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