Henry Millicer
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Henry K. Millicer, born Henryk Kazimierz Militzer (June 11, 1915 - August 28, 1996), was a Polish-Australian aircraft designer and pilot.
He was born in Poland on June 11, 1915, the son of a university professor, Henry developed an early interest in aviation. In 1924 he won an aeromodelling competition with the prize being a flight over Warsaw, his home city. At age 14 he built a full-size glider and at 17 qualified as a glider pilot. After receiving a degree in aeronautical engineering he worked as a junior designer in the National Aviation Works (Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze) on the PZL.37 Łoś bomber project headed by Jerzy Dąbrowski and later for the RWD company on the RWD-25 low-wing, fixed-wheels fighter project. He was also a member of the Polish Air Force reserve and flew against the Germans at the outbreak of World War II; winning the Polish Air Force Cross. At the defeat of Poland he ferried the presidential airplane to Romania, then escaped to France and then to England where he flew in a Polish bomber squadron in the RAF completing seventeen missions before being seriously wounded in a training exercise. He was awarded the Military Medal for his service.
Post-war he obtained a Masters degree in aeronautical engineering at the Cranfield Institute of Technology and joined Airspeed and then Percival aircraft. The Percival Provost design is attributed to Millicer. In 1950 he migrated to Australia and became chief aerodynamicist at the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF), working on the Jindivik and the Malkara missile. With two colleagues he entered a design competition sponsored by the Royal Aero Club of London for a replacement aircraft for the de Havilland Chipmunk. The Millicer team beat 103 contestants and won the competition with a design that ultimately became the Victa Airtourer. After several years of production Victa Aviation sold the rights to a New Zealand company which converted Millicer's design into the PAC CT/4 military trainer. His other inventions include a patent for the vortex flap and a suction grass mower (honored in the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening). He also published Aerodynamics for Soaring Pilots for the Gliding Club of Victoria.
Millicer became the principal lecturer in Aeronautics at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) with a view to establishing his faculty as the leading school in Australia. He retired in 1980 but remained associated with his faculty at RMIT and in 1984 his work was recognised with the award of a Doctorate in aeronautical engineering. In 1992 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. He continued to be involved in the design of aircraft and formed Millicer Aircraft Industries which bought the rights to the Aircruiser that Millicer had designed for Victa. He continued to act as an advisor for aeronautical graduate projects on a part-time basis. Millicer died on August 28, 1996 aged 81 and his ashes were scattered from the air over the coast near his home at Anglesea, of the Great Ocean Road.
