Dan Hagedorn served 25 years in the US Armed Forces before becoming Research Team Leader and Adjunct Curator for Latin American Aviation at The National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution for 19 years. He was Senior Curator and Director of Collections at The Museum of Flight at historic Boeing Field in Seattle, the world's largest independent air and space museum and, following his retirement after more than eight years, became Curator Emeritus. He is author or co-author of 27 books and monographs and more than 150 journal articles, with an emphasis on the aviation history of Latin America.