Retired Marine Corps Gen. John R. Dailey, currently the deputy associate administrator of NASA, has been named to head the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Dailey won the Distinguished Flying Cross while a Marine fighter pilot.
He succeeds Adm. Don Engen, the former AOPA Air Safety Foundation chief and Dailey’s close personal friend, who was killed in a glider accident last July. One of Dailey’s chief responsibilities will be to supervise the construction of a new 710,000-square-foot facility at the Washington Dulles International Airport. It is scheduled to open in December 2003.
While at NASA, Daily developed the NASA Strategic Plan and helped to refocus the agency’s programs in light of reduced budgets.