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A fighter pilot in World War II, Lopez became an ace during his 101 combat missions. On his first kill, he actually hit a Japanese plane with his Curtiss P-40, shearing off 2 feet of his own wing. "Rather than saying I shot him down, I always said I 'winged' him," Lopez said later. He earned a Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross (twice) and the Air Medal (thrice). He also saw combat in Korea, and then taught aeronautics at the Air Force Academy. He retired in 1964 as a Lt. Colonel. After a stint as a test pilot, and then working on the Apollo moonshot, he joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, the Smithsonian's most popular museum. He recruited curators, helped restore aircraft, and wrote much of the explanatory text on exhibits, working for four years getting things ready before the museum opened. He rose to deputy director, spending 19 years in the position. Lopez "spent the first half of his life making history," said the museum's current director, Retired Marine Gen. Jack Dailey, "and the second half commemorating it." Lopez died March 3 from a heart attack. He was 84. From This is True for 1 March 2008 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Tony Buttler List Price: $44.95 Amazon Price: $29.22 Editorial Review: Throughout aviation history there have been many aircraft designs that have failed to progress beyond the drawing board for a variety of reasons. The aircraft that have taken to the skies represent only a small percentage of those that were planned. This latest title in the highly successful Secret Projects series is also the first to deal with United States aircraft. Compiled by Tony Buttler, who has been researching the subject for many years, this book examines the great variety of U.S. fighter designs between the end of World War II and the period immediately after the USA s withdrawal from Vietnam. The book covers the immediate postwar designs of subsonic aircraft for both the USAF and USN, U.S. supersonic designs, the U.S. Vertical Take Off and Landing program, and the competitions that ultimately led to the development of iconic aircraft such as the F-14 Tomcat.  By: Dennis R. JenkinsTony R. Landis List Price: $44.95 Amazon Price: $29.22 Editorial Review: The United States Air Force was late in developing a jet fighter, definitely behind Germany and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, a small number of Lockheed P-80 Shooting Stars did make it to the European and Mediterranean theaters of operations before VE Day, although they did not see combat. After the war, the sheer size of the U.S. aviation industry guaranteed that American fighters would soon dominate the skies. However, the state of the art was advancing so fast that many development efforts never resulted in production aircraft; concepts that had seemed reasonable, even ideal, at the time were quickly overcome by newer and better technology. In the United States alone, several dozen different fighter designs made it to the prototype stage during the 1950s and 1960s. In this book, Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony R. Landis look at the variety of different jet-fighter concepts developed by the U.S. Air Force after World War II. These pages cover all experimental and prototype jet fighters that made it to the hardware stage design studies and paper airplanes are not discussed since other current books are dedicated to those subjects. The rationale for developing each aircraft is covered, along with a discussion of the technology needed to build it, its flight-test program, and the reasons it was cancelled or ordered into production. The text is derived mostly from official Air Force documents, and all of the aircraft are well covered photographically, usually with seldom-seen images showing them as they appeared during their flight-test program.  By: Robert L. Shaw List Price: $39.95 Amazon Price: $26.37  By: Robert Coram List Price: $34.00 Amazon Price: $34.00 Editorial Review: John Boyd was the greatest fighter pilot in American history. From the proving ground of the Korean War, he went on to win renown as the instructor who defeated-in less than forty seconds-every pilot who took him on. But what made Boyd a man for the ages was what happened after he left the cockpit. Boyd made a career of challenging the intractable Pentagon bureaucracy, making enemies and a few devoted disciples who would become known as "The Acolytes." Boyd transformed the way military aircraft-in particular the F-15 and F-16-were designed with his revolutionary "Energy-Maneuverability Theory," fighting the Air Force's entrenched ideas every step of the way. He then dedicated lonely years to a radical theory of conflict that at the time was mostly ignored, but now is acclaimed as the most influential thinking about conflict since Sun Tzu. A man of daring, ferocious passion, and remarkable stubbornness, John Boyd was that most American of heroes-a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune, but for his country. And in BOYD, Robert Coram finally tells his incredible story. Until now, John Boyd has been the great secret hero of the American military. No longer.  By: Dave ParsonsGeorge HallBob Lawson List Price: $40.00 Amazon Price: $26.40 Editorial Review: For thirty-five years of active naval service, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat has served as the foremost air superiority fight of the cold war with continuing service as a fighter-bomber in the Gulf Wars. It is this service and the two hundred thousand sailors, both pilots and “ground” crew, who served in F-14 squadrons with the Tomcat over the years. This book is a grand remembrance of this great aircraft by those flew it. Hundred of pilots have included their favorite stories of the missions and plane that brought them home. Two hundred exceptional color photographs show the F-14 on the deck, in the air and over the sea. |
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