Attended Southern Polytechnic State University - served in the United States Air Force as an aircraft mechanic, Crew Chief on C-124 Globemaster, flight mechanic on C-97 Stratocruiser and T-28 Trojan aircraft in the 1960s in both U.S. and England. Also worked in transient maintenance servicing many different military aircraft. Retired from a career of 36 years with United Airlines where I acquired a broad working knowledge of the airline industry by working in flight operations, cargo operations and flight line aircraft handling. My experience in the Air Force and knowledge of aircraft has been key in researching and writing articles for numerous aviation magazines. Having spent the majority of my career life at airfields around aircraft, I have experienced operations in every type of weather and witnessed many incidents and events. In addition I have photographed more than 10,000 aircraft.    Website: https://williampatrickdean.com/ 

My current book Ultra-Large Aircraft 1940-1970 released in 2018 reviews the development of expanded fuselage and guppy type aircraft. The primary focus is on Aero Spacelines and Jack Conroy who revolutionized transport aircraft in 1962.

The accounting begins with the postwar designs and relates many stories of strange and questionable characters who became involved in aviation for profit. It even reviews gun running efforts by some suspicious characters connected with the mob and questionable Wall Street types. Some of these individuals surface multiple times during the development of volumetric cargo aircraft.

This account is illustrated with 198 photographs which many have never been published. The book is fully Indexed with Bibliography, Glossary and Appendix.

My previous book THE ATL-98 CARVAIR is a comprehensive history of the fleet. It was published in 2008 by McFarland and Company. It is now in the third printing and available in soft cover. It is one of the most popular aviation books in the McFarland catalog.

For more than 25 years my articles and photographs have appeared in Airways, Airliner World, WarBird Digest, Propliner, Airnieuws, Air Britain Aviation World, Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, Flight Journal and many other aviation magazines.

I am a member of the American Aviation Historical Society and Air Britain. I serve as the Air Britain "Specialist" (Historian) on the DC-4/ATL-98 Carvair.