Museum Senior Curator Dan Hagedorn delivers program September 26

SEATTLE, Sept. 16, 2009

--On Sept. 26 the Museum pays tribute to the rich legacy of Latin American women pilots and aviation pioneers in a program called "Pilotas y Pioneros," by The Museum of Flight Senior Curator, Dan Hagedorn. Hagedorn is one of the world's experts on the history of aviation in Latin America. This 40-minute, illustrated presentation will feature some well-known as well as some not-so-well-known women. The program is at 2 p.m. in the William M. Allen Theater, and is free with admission to the Museum. 
 

Latin American aviators and innovators played key roles in the development of aviation in Latin America. With the region's many geographic obstacles, aviation was soon recognized as the fastest means of transportation, making air travel in the 1930s more commonplace there than in the United States. Hagedorn's program is an enlightening look at the unique stories of flight in the skies above Latin America.

Before assuming his position at The Museum of Flight in January 2008, Hagedorn was the Adjunct Curator for Latin American Aviation at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1998, he was curator for the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Latin American Aviation at the Smithsonian Institution,"¡ARRIBA! The History of Flight in Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean." Hagedorn has authored 17 books dealing with various aspects of aviation history in Latin America, and was a founding member of the Latin American Aviation Historical Society. In 2006 he was decorated with the Orden Merito Santos-Dumont by the Ambassador of Brazil on behalf of the Government of Brazil for services to the history of aviation in that country.

The Museum of Flight has many artifacts with Hispanic legacies, including several aircraft. The Museum's P-38 Lightning flew with the Honduran Air Force, the P-47D Thunderbolt on exhibit last served operationally with the Bolivian Air Force, the Museum's rare DC-2 was flown extensively for Latin American airlines, and the de Havilland Comet at the Museum's Restoration Center was Mexicana's first jet airliner. For more information and photographs of Museum aircraft, please see:
http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft
Image: The Museum of Flight Senior Curator Dan Hagedorn. Photo credit The Museum of Flight.

### The Museum of Flight is located at 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, Exit 158 off Interstate 5 (on Boeing Field between downtown Seattle and SeaTac Airport.) The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $14 for adults, $13 for seniors 65 and older, $10 for active military, $7.50 for youth 5 to 17, and free for children under 5. Group rates are available. Admission on the first Thursday of the month is free from 5 to 9 p.m. courtesy of Wells Fargo. For general Museum information, please call 206-764-5720 or visit www.museumofflight.org.

Ted Huetter

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206.768.7105

Tara Cashman
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206.768.7128