John Miller gently advanced the throttle with his left hand. As the autogiro’s 225-hp radial engine roared to life, the huge rotor blades began to sweep precariously close to his head. Suddenly, the aircraft began vibrating violently, and the massive rotor blades ripped through the tail section. The autogiro began to disintegrate around Miller. ‘It tore the aircraft to shreds, Miller recalled. Pieces flew all over the airport. I just held on and tried to avoid getting decapitated. It was not a real healthy place to be!

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It was 1937, and Miller’s string of accident-free test flights had been broken. So had his neck. The cracked vertebrae in his neck didn’t deter Miller from completing the testing program, however. Three years later, the Kellett KD-1 Autogiro became the first wingless aircraft to obtain official certification from the Civil Aeronautics Authority.

After seven decades and more than 35,000 hours in the cockpit, John Miller is now being recognized for his pioneering role as a test pilot for two of the most eccentric and innovative aircraft in history–the autogiro and the Duck.

First developed by Juan de la Cierva, the autogiro made its first successful flight in January 1923 in Madrid. Dubbed the flying windmill by the press because of its oversized rotor blades, the autogiro looked like an airplane but flew like a helicopter. Unlike a helicopter, however, the autogiro’s rotor was not powered in flight. The standard propeller provided forward airspeed, causing the rotor to turn. That enabled the aircraft to perform nearly vertical descents, but because the rotor was unpowered, the autogiro could not hover or take off vertically.

John Miller was the first individual to purchase a Pitcairn PCA-2 autogiro, Serial No. 13, in 1931. That number had been offered to but turned down by Amelia Earhart. Two years later, Earhart received national recognition for making a transcontinental flight in an autogiro–although Miller had accomplished the same feat two weeks earlier. I made it out and back, he mused after the flight. She crashed it on the way out, then totaled it on the way back!

Miller honed his autogiro flying skills while performing incredible feats–such as loops and rolls–at airshows across the country, including the National Air Races in Los Angeles and the International Air Races in Chicago in 1933.

I was the only one who ever did loops and rolls at airshows [with an autogiro], Miller declared. Other pilots thought I was crazy. But I wasn’t crazy–I was an engineer! A 1927 graduate of Pratt Institute in New York City, Miller knew the autogiro could withstand the maneuvers, and he meant to prove to everyone that it was a safe aircraft.

Wallace Kellett, president of the Kellett Autogiro Company, visited Miller in 1937 in Chicago, where he was stationed as a captain flying for United Airlines. He persuaded Miller, who by then was one of the most experienced autogiro pilots available, to finish the flight-test program for the world’s first wingless autogiro.

The Kellett KD-1 was unprecedented in that it featured a perfected direct-control system originally developed by Cierva. It lacked wings, ailerons, elevators and rudder–all directional control for the KD-1 was provided through the unique tilting rotor head. This simplified a complex control system, enabling the pilot to use a conventional stick to tilt the rotor head for complete directional control.

While Kellett was developing the wingless KD-1, Miller often accompanied him on trips to Washington, D.C., where they lobbied members of Congress to provide funding for an experimental rooftop operation to expedite mail delivery. I’d land the autogiro in streets and parks throughout the capital, taking up senators and congressmen on flights all over the city, Miller remembered. I even shuttled some of them to their golf courses. Only the White House was restricted. Everywhere else–no permission was necessary.

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