Len Morgan
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A. G. Leonard Morgan (1923 – March 11, 2005) was an American aviator and writer.
Morgan was born in Indiana and graduated high school in Kentucky in spring, 1941, whereupon he left for Canada to volunteer for the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US' entry into World War II, he transferred to the United States Army Air Forces in Egypt and flew in Africa and the Middle East. He attended college following the war and continued flying for the Kentucky National Guard, one of whose P-51 Mustangs he "borrowed" to go to a short-notice job interview with the young Braniff International Airways in Dallas in 1949. Morgan flew for Braniff for a 33 year career. He rose to the captaincy of every aircraft type the airline flew during that period, from the Douglas DC-3 to the Boeing 747 (Note 1).
During and after his airline career, Morgan wrote over 30 books and hundreds of magazine articles on a wide variety of aviation subjects. His monthly column, Vectors, was a prominent feature of Flying magazine for over 20 years. An accomplished storyteller, he wrote not only of airplanes but also shared gentle wisdom about the people and experiences he encountered over his flying career. Richard L. Collins, former editor of Flying magazine, eulogized, "[Morgan] was as eloquent as anything ever published in Flying. . . In his last Vectors column in 1999, Len closed with a reflection on his bond with the readers. 'So, good friends, it was good knowing all of you. Goodbye, wherever you are.'" [1]
[edit] Quotations
"The way I see it, you can either work for a living or you can fly airplanes. Me, I'd rather fly."
If one reads his Column a Derlict Hulk is Worth a thousand words his skill with the English Language parralels Mark Knopler's skill with the Stratocaster in Sultans of Swing slowly bringing the reader into the scene touching old visercal knowledge building a phenominal amount of tension and releasing it in much the same manner as the Knopler cuts note value building to a cresendoan releasing it.
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[edit] Footnotes
1. From 1979 until shortly before the 1982 bankruptcy, Braniff pilots operated (usually nearly empty) British Airways and Air France Concordes on cooperative "spur" flights between Dallas and Washington, DC. The planes, owned by BA/AF and in their respective liveries, then took on BA/AF crews and continued on to London and Paris respectively. Morgan was not involved with this boondoggle.
2. Len was the brother of David P. Morgan, editor of "Trains" magazine.
