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LT. COLONEL DONALD S. LOPEZ, USAF (RET) Deputy Director, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: The Colonel is a highly respected military aviator, test pilot, aerospace engineer and aviation historian. Joining the Army Air Force in May 1942, Lopez served in China as a fighter pilot with the 23rd Fighter Group. Flying the P-40 Warhawk and the P-51 Mustang, Lopez would be officially credited with the destruction of five Japanese aircraft in aerial combat. Returning to the U.S., Lopez was assigned as a test pilot at Eglin Field, Florida, where he tested the Army's first generation of jet fighters. Following the War, Lopez further developed his skills as a test pilot by attending the Army Air Force's Test Pilot School. As a test pilot assigned to Wright Field, Ohio (today's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,) he evaluated and tested a wide variety of both experimental and operational fighters, bombers and transport aircraft. During The Korean War, Lopez was temporarily assigned to combat operations with the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, where he carried-out combat suitability test on the F-86 Sabre Jet. Lopez continued his own education by obtaining advanced degrees in aeronautical engineering and then taught thermodynamics and propulsion systems at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Later as a NASA engineer he worked on the Apollo-Saturn launch vehicle and the Skylab Orbital Workshop. In 1972, Lopez became the Assistant Director for Aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. |
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