RFT 048: Warbird/Airline Pilot Donna Miller

Donna Miller learned to fly in South Korea while working as a civilian for the Air Force. She flew general aviation in Europe while working for Jeppesen in the Frankfurt office, then transferred to Jeppesen in Denver and helped Elrey Jeppesen catalog his memorabilia.  He gave her a piece of fabric from the original Wright Flyer, and she had it made into a necklace that Eileen Collins took to space when they docked with MIR.

She had the honor of flying Neil Armstrong to Kitty Hawk for the centennial of flight celebration in 2003. She gave the necklace to one of the pilots who did the recreation flight, so it went from Kitty Hawk to space and back to Kitty Hawk 100 years later.

She also had the honor of knowing Louie Zamperini very well for the last 8 years of his life and traveled with him on several occasions to speaking engagements.

In addition to her job as an airline pilot, she also flies  WWII bombers (B-17, B-24, B-25) for the Collings Foundation.