ByMarkRhodes

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LETTERFROM LONG ISLAND: THE AVIATION LEGACYOF RENAISSANCEMAN RICHARD MILLIGAN

By Mark Rhodes

Though the Grumman Aerospace Corporation left Long Island in the early 90s, it’s legacy as a manufacturer of innovative and potent military aircraft and its contributions to the Apollo missions remains in sharp focus.

One of the great aircraft developed by Grumman was the F-14 Tomcat, manufactured in the late 60s. The “Tomcat” became the Navy’s primary airtime superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical aerial reconnaissance platform until the mid-2000s. The aircraft is on display in several locales around the United States, notably at the Grumman Memorial Park in Claverton, New York, (grummanpark.org) where many Grumman-made aircraft were built for decades in the now abandoned facility nearby.

As many of “The Greatest Generation” did, Richard “Dick” Milligan joined the U.S. Army Air Corps just before graduating from Bay Shore High School in 1943 (he received his diploma after the war). He served in the European Theatre as a B-24 flight engineer. He was a gunner, a position long considered the most treacherous in the hierarchy of a bomb crew. After World War II, he was employed by the Grumman Aircraft Corporation as Director of Maintenance and Operations. An odd twist of fate changed Milligan’s career trajectory forever; he had been an enthusiastic sketcher and to the amusement of his co-workers, made it a practice to hang up some of his sketches (most of which were cartoonish in nature) around Grumman’s hangars. A company executive apparently noticed these stylized sketches and felt like Milligan would be perfect for the company’s PR wing and soon Milligan was helping Grumman generate bro chures, training manuals and ultimately became heavily involved in the company’s documentary film division.

Probably Milligan’s most memorable and important film was the documentary released in 1998 and run on public television in the New York metro area. The film, Daredevils and Dreamers: An Eyewitness Account, chronicled the tales of about a dozen pilots, mainly revolving around the early 20th century Long Island aviation scene. The interviews and accounts profiled aviation pioneers like the legendary Elinor Smith, who was the youngest licensed pilot of her day getting her wings at the ripe old age of 16. The Richard Milligan in a typical pose on one of the many film sets where he acted as an aviation consultant. (Courtesy Mark Rhodes)

Richard Milligan began his career at Grumman as Director of Maintenance and Operation but his artistic talent advanced him to the company’s PR wing. (Courtesy Mark Rhodes)

film also chronicles the exploits of colorful early aviators like the Eroll Flynnesque Bert Acosta, who made his mark as one of the earliest test pilots and was known equally well for his preternatural flying ability and propensity to run afoul of the authorities by performing illegal stunts, such as flying under bridges (a favorite daredevil move of early U.S. aviators).

Many of the pilots interviewed in the film were well into their 80s and 90s at that point (including Elinor Smith who died in 2010). So the film not only captured the exhilaratingly dangerous world of early 20th century aviation, it also stands as a first-hand account of this time and, as

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