Melvin B. Zisfein
Melvin B. Zisfein (1926–1995) was an aircraft designer and a Deputy Director of the U.S. National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Zisfein graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with degrees in aeronautical engineering (B.S. 1948; M.S. 1948) and worked as a designer, aerodynamicist, and manager for aircraft companies from then until 1966. He was associate director of the Franklin Institute Research Laboratories from 1966 to 1971. From 1971 to 1982 he served as the deputy director of the National Air and Space Museum, and was the acting director in 1978. Zisfein published a book, Flight: A Panorama of Aviation in 1981, and a number of other books and professional publications. Some of his papers are kept at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. References Aircraft designers Directors of museums in the United States American aviation writers Smithsonian Institution people American aerospace engineers MIT School of Engineering alumni 1926 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American engineers