WORLD WAR II PANEL
10:30 am – NOON  BOTH DAYS
 

Panelist:  Donald S. Lopez

Deputy Director of the National Air and Space Museum

WWII will come alive when this WWII pilot

talks about that extraordinary time in history

During World War II, Lopez served in China, flying Curtiss P-40s and North American P-51s. "I am particularly interested in telling the story of the air war in China. The operation there was miniscule compared to the other theaters of the war, but its contribution was much larger than is generally recognized," he said.  “The Aviation Heritage Festival venue at Daniel Webster College is an ideal way to share that information,” Lopez added, “and enhances what students may have learned in the history classroom.” 

After the war, Lopez attended the Air Force Test Pilot School, spent almost six years testing fighters, and completed a short combat tour flying North American F-86s in Korea. Following a tour in the Pentagon, he earned a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology and a master's degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology. He spent the next five years at the U.S. Air Force Academy as an associate professor of aeronautics and chief of academic counseling. After his retirement from the U.S. Air Force in 1964, Lopez worked as a Systems Engineer on the Apollo-Saturn Launch Vehicle and the Skylab Orbital Workshop for Bellcomm, Inc.

Lopez has been with the Smithsonian Institution since 1972, when he came to the organization as assistant director for the Aeronautics Department. He became part of the team that was responsible for planning the construction and opening of the National Air and Space Museum. In his role as assistant director for Aeronautics, Lopez was instrumental in developing the exhibits that welcomed visitors at the museum's opening July, 1976, and have made it the most visited museum in the world.

Lopez became deputy director in 1983, a position he held until 1990. He served as senior advisor to the director before retiring in 1993. From 1993 to 1996, Lopez served as senior advisor emeritus and was again appointed deputy director in 1996. His most recent book, Fighter Pilot's Heaven: Flight Testing the Early Jets, was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1995. He also authored Into the Teeth of the Tiger in 1986, and The National Air and Space Museum: A Visit in Pictures, 1989.

Credit: Photo by Carolyn Russo/NASM, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution; Copyright: Smithsonian Institution

Panelist:  Frank Tedesco of Abington, Mass.,  was an Air Force pilot stationed in Italy during WW II. Frank, a former B-24 pilot, helped restore a B-24 for the Collings Foundation. He flew a B2-4 in WW II. He volunteers at Norwood and Plymouth airports when the two big bombers of WW II fly in.