Hallion, Richard P(aul, Jr.) 1948-

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HALLION, Richard P(aul, Jr.) 1948-

PERSONAL: Born May 17, 1948, in Washington, DC; son of Richard Paul (a federal government employee) and Marie (Flynn) Hallion; married. Education: University of Maryland, B.A. (with high honors), 1970, Ph.D., 1975; attended Federal Executive Institute, 1991, and John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1992.

ADDRESSES: Office—Air Force History and Museum Program, 1190 Air Force Pentagon, Washington, DC 20330-1190.

CAREER: Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, curator of science and technology and space science and exploration, 1974-80; University of Maryland, College Park, adjunct professor, 1980-82; Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, CA, chief historian, 1982-86; Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, director of special staff office, 1986-87; Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA, Harold Keith Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History, 1987-88; Directorate of Advanced Programs, Headquarters Air Force Systems Command, Andrews AFB, MD, executive historian, 1988-90; Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, Charles A. Lindbergh Visiting Professor of Aerospace History, 1990-91; Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Secretary's Staff Group, Washington, DC, senior issues and policy analyst, 1991; Bolling AFB, Washington, DC, Air Force historian, 1991—.

MEMBER: International Footprint Association, International Order of Characters, National Aviation Club, National Association of Scholars, Air Force Historical Foundation, Air Force Association, Military Operations Research Society, Precision Strike Association, Phi Alpha Theta, Pi Sigma Alpha, Phi Kappa Phi.

AWARDS, HONORS: Guggenheim fellowship, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, 1972-73; writing awards, Aviation and Space Writers Association, 1975-81; history manuscript award, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), 1976; Aviation/Space Writers Association regional award, 1978, for Legacy of Flight; Dr. Robert H. Goddard essay award, National Space Club, 1979; Young Engineer/Scientist of the Year, AIAA (National Capitol Section), 1979; distinguished lecturer, AIAA, 1982-83; Lt. Col. Roy Mase Trophy and Commander's Distinguished Paper Award, both Air Force Systems Command, both 1985; citation of honor, Air Force Association, 1985; Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, U.S. Air Force, 1986; Commander's Award for Public Service, U.S. Army, 1988; Ira Eaker Award, Air University, 1990; Premier Award, Aviation Space Writers Association, 1993, for defense aviation coverage.

WRITINGS:

Supersonic Flight: Breaking the Sound Barrier and Beyond, Macmillan (New York, NY)/Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Washington, DC), 1972, revised edition published as Supersonic Flight: Breaking the Sound Barrier and Beyond: The Story of the Bell X-1 and Douglas D-558, Brassey's (Washington, DC), 1997.

Legacy of Flight: The Guggenheim Contribution to American Aviation, University of Washington Press (Seattle, WA), 1977.

The Wright Brothers: Heirs of Prometheus, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 1978.

(Editor, with Tom D. Crouch) Apollo: Ten Years since Tranquility Base, National Air and Space Museum (Washington, DC), 1979.

Test Pilots: The Frontiersmen of Flight, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1981, revised edition, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 1988.

(With the editors of Time Life Books) Designers and Test Pilots, Time-Life Books (Alexandria, VA), 1983.

The Literature of Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Air Power, Office of Air Force History (Washington, DC), 1984.

On the Frontier: Flight Research at Dryden, 1946-1981, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Washington, DC), 1984.

Rise of the Frontier Aircraft, 1914-18, Nautical and Aviation Publication Company of America (Washington, DC), 1984.

The Naval Air War in Korea, Nautical and Aviation Publication Company of America (Baltimore, MD), 1986.

(Editor) The Hypersonic Revolution: Eight Case Studies in the History of Hypersonic Technology: A Special Staff Office Study, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Ohio), 1987, new edition published as The Hypersonic Revolution: Case Studies in the History of Hypersonic Technology, Air Force History and Museums Program (Bolling AFB, DC), 1998.

Strike from the Sky: The History of Battlefield Air Attack, 1911-1945, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 1989.

Storm over Iraq: Air Power and the Gulf War, Smithsonian Institute Press (Washington, DC), 1992.

(Editor) Air Power Confronts an Unstable World, Brassey's (Washington, DC), 1997.

A Career in Test and Evaluation: Reflections and Observations: From an Oral History Interview of Charles E. "Pete" Adolph, Air Force History and Museums Program (Washington, DC), 1998.

(With Michael H. Gorn) On the Frontier: Flight Research at Dryden, 1946-1999, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Washington, DC), 2001, published as On the Frontier: Experimental Flight at NASA Dryden, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 2003.

Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity through the First World War, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

D-Day 1944: Air Power over the Normandy Beaches and Beyond, University Press of the Pacific, (Washington, DC), 2005.

Author of column "Out of the Past" in Astronautics and Aeronautics. Contributor to various publications, including Air Enthusiast, Aeroplane Monthly, Aviation Quarterly, Flight International, Cockpit, Flying, Technology and Culture, and Aerospace Historian.

SIDELIGHTS: Richard P. Hallion is a pilot and an authority on aeronautics and astronautics who has worked as a curator for the Smithsonian, a historian for the U.S. Air Force, and a university professor. He has written numerous books on aviation and on the role of air power in the military.

The U.S. military has relied increasingly on air strikes since the conflict in Vietnam, especially in the recent campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. In his 1992 book, Storm over Iraq: Air Power and the Gulf War, Hallion "argues persuasively" that the air force now plays the dominant role in military campaigns, according to Richard Nowicki in a Library Journal review. While there are still two schools of thought in the U.S. military—those who are traditionalists, arguing for the importance of the navy and ground troops, and those who feel air power must play a leading role—Hallion "demonstrates authoritatively" that in the Persian Gulf War the use of the latter was the correct course of action, reported Nowicki. On the other hand, Earl H. Tilford, Jr. maintained in a Political Science Quarterly assessment of Storm over Iraq that Hallion's prejudice in favor of the Air Force leads to a flawed analysis of its importance, including a "selective view of history" that leaves out some important historical facts, such as the ineffectiveness of air power in Vietnam, and a tendency "toward the evangelical in support of strategic bombing doctrine." Nevertheless, Tilford concluded that the author "has produced what is probably the best of the post-Desert Storm 'computers-out-the-window' interpretations of victory through high technology and air power in Storm over Iraq."

Hallion wrote Storm over Iraq not long after that campaign was over, but most of his books have been more extensive studies of aviation history. One of his more recent contributions to this field is 2003's Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity through the First World War. Going all the way back to the legend of Icarus and the inventive drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and from Kitty Hawk through today's modern advances, Hallion divides his history into seven eras that attempt to integrate cultural and political history with the development of aviation. Asserting that Taking Flight demonstrates "quality writing and solid research," John Carver Edwards stated in Library Journal that Hallion's book represents "a major contribution to the centennial of the Wright brothers' landmark achievement."

Hallion once told CA: "As an aviation historian, I am always pleasantly surprised by the great amount of subjects within the field that have not received their measure of attention. As a result, I have the enjoyable and enviable opportunity of selecting those subjects that I am especially intrigued by for detailed research. Eventually, I believe that we will have the broad sweep of aviation history mapped out, much as the contours of, say, American history are now, and when that time comes, the historian's task may become more tedious—but no less important—than it is now."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, April 1, 2003, George Cohen, review of Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity through the First World War, p. 1362.

Christian Science Monitor, April 24, 1981, Paul Van Slambrouck, "Space Shuttle 'Diary' Yields Spicy Tidbits for NASA Engineers: Columbia Data Give New Insights into Design of Hypersonic Aircraft," p. 12.

Economist, June 7, 2003, "Wings of the Wind; Flying," p. 75.

History Today, November, 2003, A. D. Harvey, review of Taking Flight, p. 91.

Journal of American History, June, 1994, Peter Faber, review of Storm over Iraq: Air Power and the Gulf War, p. 353.

Library Journal, March 15, 1982, review of Test Pilots: The Frontiersmen of Flight, p. 645; October 1, 1992, review of Storm over Iraq, p. 106; April 1, 2003, John Carver Edwards, "Flight's Centennial Thus Far," p. 114.

New York Review of Books, November 6, 2003, Roger Shattuck, "Tumult in the Clouds," p. 30.

New York Times, October 27, 1992, Herbert Mitgang, review of Storm over Iraq, p. B2.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 1993, Earl H. Tilford, Jr., review of Storm over Iraq, p. 327.

School Library Journal, March, 1980, review of Apollo: Ten Years since Tranquility Base, p. 150.

Sky & Telescope, February, 1980, review of Apollo, p. 154; April, 1980, Richard S. Lewis, review of Apollo, p. 325.

Space World, January, 1981, Dave Dooling, review of Apollo, p. 20.