Auto & Design - 178 - Settembre/Ottobre 2009

Book review

How can a 695 page autobiography possibly ignore any part of an author's life? But when the protagonist is 98 years old, still vigorous and active in design, invention and engineering, when he played major roles in test flying, aeronautical research, auto racing, and automotive research - creating the world's most advanced vehicle dynamics laboratory - this tome just skims the surface of an extraordinarily productive working life.

And a fascinating life it has been for William F. Milliken. Obsessed by auto racing, he built his first car at age 10, started design of his first airplane at 15, and by age 22 he had built, flown, and crashed it. At the Massachusetts lnstitute of Technology, his essay won a scholarship to the Boeing School of Aeronautics where he learned to fly properly.

Milliken met or worked with almost everyone important in aviation in the 30's and 40's. He participated in flight testing Boeing's Stratoliner, the first pressurized commercial airplane, as well as Boeing 6-17 and B-29 bombers. He was in at the creation of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (now known as Calspan and more involved with cars than aircraft).

Learning that for years his only car was a Type 35 Bugatti he drove winter and summer, one appreciates his appetite for adventure and precise, well-behaved machinery. He started racing at the first Watkins Glen event in 1948, went on to develop the first application of a torque converter in a race car (a Type 54 Bugatti) and to work with racing four-wheel-drive systems, including a Miller he ran at Pike's Peak.

No matter what aspect of design interests you, you will find inspiration in this thoughtful man's history and his careful recounting of numerous projects and adventures, each of them worth a book of its own.

Review of Equations of Motion from Auto & Design - 178 - Settembre/Ottobre 2009