For Immediate Release
 

November 5, 2003

Distinguished Historian of Flying, Richard Hallion,
To Conduct Book Talk at UM Campus Library

Dr. Richard P. Hallion, a distinguished international authority on aviation, author of numerous award-winning books and formerly the U.S. Air Force Historian, will conduct a Book Talk on Wednesday, November 19, at 3 p.m. in the Special Events Room of McKeldin Library on the University of Maryland, College Park, campus. 

Dr. Hallion’s latest book, Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial  Age from Antiquity Through the First World War, was published this past June.

The Book Talk, sponsored by the UM Friends of the Libraries and the Libraries’ Nonprint Media Services Department, is free and open to the public. 

Dean of Libraries Charles Lowry will welcome the program attendees and Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities James Harris will introduce his former student. A reception and book signing will conclude the event. Negotiations are underway to have Dr. Hallion’s Book Talk taped for national broadcast at a later date.

Dr. Hallion teaches widely at American and foreign universities and defense colleges. He has gained flying experience as a mission observer in a wide range of civil and military aircraft, served as a NASA historian, and in 1974, joined the Smithsonian Institution as one of the founding curators of the National Air and Space Museum. He also has broad experience in museum development, historical research and management analysis and has served as a consultant to various professional organizations.

A 1970 graduate of the University of Maryland, Dr. Hallion, teaches and lectures widely and is the author of 16 books relating to aerospace history. His latest book, Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity Through the First World War, has drawn critical praise from a number of prestigious publications including the New York Review of Books which wrote:

“Richard P. Hallion, a distinguished historian of flying, has written what aspires to be the standard reference work on the subject. . . . Taking Flight represents the best-informed, most balanced aviation history now available in English. Hallion overlooks no important figure in Europe or the United States and deals expertly with key technical puzzlers like wing-warping.”

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