Leonard Milholand's History and Bio Information...
A Bit of History, and a Little Perspective...
When giving a lecture at Oshkosh in 2002, Leonard was asked what type of airfoil was used on the Legal Eagle? "LP2" Leonard answers, "LP2" answers the crowd? Yes, Leonard says "LP2" stands for Lead Pencil #2. A good joke, but to really understand why LP2 works for Leonard you have to know that he has been at this a while. In fact Leonard has about 60 years experience at drawing lines with a #2 pencil.
Leonard Milholland designer of the Legal Eagle™ at the controls of his first home built the Junior Ace, completed in 1974.
Leonard,
was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on July, 29th, 1924, and has always had
an interest in airplanes. But his opportunity to really learn about them
started in World War II. Early in 1942 he found himself assigned to
Good Fella Field in San Angelo TX. Interestingly enough about the same time
this picture was taken, 60 years ago, Leonard met his Wife LaVerne! They
were married in June 1943.
The US Army Air Corp trained Leonard as an Air Craft Mechanic, Crew member and gunner on a B24.
Leonard could field strip a fifty caliber machine gun but it never did him any good... Not the same can be said for his mechanical abilities, that were put to good use all through the war. Here we see Leonard inspecting a B24 engine at David, Panama in the canal zone.
Naturally during the war Leonard got to do some flying, fulfilling those boyhood dreams when watching barnstormers in Kansas City. After the war Leonard came back to the states and worked 33 years for Shell Oil. But, life on the wing didn't start again until 1970. That is when he and LaVerne started flying lessons. They took to it like chicks pushed from the nest.
Sports
flyer Estates in Brookshire west of Katy TX, is there home base, and they
live in a 60 by 80 hanger that they built complete with a 2 bedroom apartment
built into one end. After earning their pilots licences Leonard and LaVerne
started getting around in a newly purchased Cessna 182. They began to attend
airshows, getting to know flying enthusiasts who restore or build their own
airplanes or homebuilts. We decided that we wanted a fun little airplane
said Leonard, I picked out a simple design that was tried and true and
started building it in our garage in Deer Park. TX.
This
is the same garage that Leonard had worked in for years as a VW and auto
mechanic for the local community. The skills Leonard gained really came in
handy when designing the Better Half VW.
The garage became his haunt after work and on weekends. He bought aircraft-grade spruce and mahogany and cut all the pieces himself. He fashioned the the fuselage from steel tubing, Slowly the Junior Ace, N20LM, metamorphosed from a stack of wood spars, yards of fabric and an assemblage of wires and gadgets, into a spirited open cockpit airplane. This first homebuilt took two years, four months and 20 days.
During the planes construction the Milholland's started thinking
about the need for an airplane hanger. To cut costs they decided they'd build
it themselves. Naturally their ideas about what they wanted to do in retirement
was also a consideration, causing the addition of the apartment in the hanger.
Here we see Leonard and LaVerne photographed on the sunporch, for a
feature story that Shell did on them in 1987. The photo directly below is
also credited to the shell story.
Naturally the hanger is fully equipped for the pursute of building small airplanes and doing the little odds and ends that Leonard tackles for his EAA chapter, that also has most of their meetings here.
Leonard also has built a number of other homebuilts including a guppy, a baby ace and a Kelly - D.
The Kelly D.
At 2003 Oshkosh,
Leonard had the Double Eagle™ ready for showing. The 2003 OSHKOSH trip
is dedicated to the memory of Leonard's wife of 60 years. (LaVerne Milholland
asked Leonard to make the Oshkosh trip and as one of her parting wishes,
we are all committed to honoring her memory.)
LaVerne passed away
6/17/2003.
The events of 2003 were ones that pulled the entire family together and helped us all remember the important things in life. For recreation Leonard continued with the double eagle project and the building of a sailboat. He also continued with his commitment to the young eagles program with the EAA. The family was all glad to see his passion for all these things continue in his life.
In 2004 another passion was kindled in Leonard's life when his friendship with Donna became a full out case of "Leonard in Love." The great thing was, it was mutual, Donna's in love too. And with Leonard no less. Will wonders never cease. In any case with the love and encouragement of all the family and friends who could see this passion ever so clearly as we all watched as Leonard Proposed this thanksgiving (2004). Here is a picture of the blessed event. What do you think?
Donna Cervenka & Leonard Milholland at Thanksgiving, right after the proposal. At a Family Thanksgiving 2004
.
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Leonard has also restored a number of aircraft, but as is the
case with all biography's this one is a work in progress, and as I have time
to develop the story further, be sure I will do so...
Graeme Gibson, also a pilot, is Leonard's unofficial biographer, son-in-law, and webmaster. Graeme owns Computers & Tele-Comm, Inc, (CTC) a Wireless Internet Service Provider in Kansas City, where he lives in the Independence area with his wife the former Gail Milholland. Gail is VP of CTC. Graeme is also President of the KC NAP, LLC a co-location and peering point in downtown Kansas City.
Copyright 2002 by G. E. Gibson, all rights reserved, photos by Leonard Milholland and Graeme Gibson. Last Update 1/29/2005.
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