Meet the Researchers!
Dimitris Vassilopoulos
Author - ResearcherDimitrius Vassilopoulos was born in Athens in 1976. He studied and practiced the profession of Mechanical Engineer. From an early age he showed interest in aviation and later in aviation history. Due to his studies, he served at the 356th Tactical Transport Squadron, of the 112th Combat Wing, as a reserve crew chief, responsible for the C-130B/H Hercules Transports of the Hellenic Air Force in 2001-2002. At the same time, he wrote a small number of articles in aviation history magazines, due to his limited time due to his work. This research is more than 17 years old and his partnership with Kyriakos Paloulian and later with George Chalkiadopoulos was of crucial importance for the publication of this study. He is married to Vagia Alymara and has a daughter, Athena, whose support remained constant, even when he "neglected" them while writing his books. Apart from researching and writing, Dimitrius Vassilopoulos is also responsible for the artistic editing of the book.
Kyriakos Paloulian
Author - ResearcherKyriakos “Kirk” Paloulian has a diverse background as an aviation journalist with 200 articles hosted primarily in Greek aviation and defense magazines. Kirk has written articles for the Greek version of the Cockpit magazine, Hellenic Air Force Yearbook, HAF Review, Stratigiki, Hellenic Defense & Security, Doureios Ippos Almanac, Remove Before Flight, and Military Remove Before Flight magazines. A fair number of articles have found their way translated in English language for Air International, Air Forces Monthly, Aviation News, Flypast, and Model Aircraft Monthly. Kirk has served in the 1992-93 period with Hellenic Air Force as a sergeant on the last TF/F/RF-104G Starfighters that equipped the 336 “Olympos” Fighter Squadron, based at 116th Fighter Wing in Araxos AFB. In 1994 Kirk moved to California to train as a civilian pilot. In the meantime he joined up in UCLA the US Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 055 where he logged a few hours on T-34B of NAS Point Mugu. Upon return to Greece as the prospective market of civilian flying was rather limited, Kirk started writing articles as a contributor to various magazines. Both Air Force experience exposures have added up an operational sense whenever a feature is conducted. His flying background helped and a series of articles describing handling of different aircraft were hosted. With this experience an effort is done to write an article from a pilot’s perspective but with an explanatory angle. Thus in the period 2000 – 2011 flights as a backseater were conducted with Hellenic Air Force, T-2E Buckeye, TA-7C Corsair, F-4E SRA/RF-4E Phantom, F-16D blk52+ Mirage-2000-5 and as a co-pilot in Dornier-28D. Except HAF Kirk has flown with the Hellenic Coast Guard Reims F.406 Vigilante. Flights with the RAF were conducted with No. 100 Squadron Hawk Mk.1A and 32 Royal Squadron aircraft. As a pilot Kirk has flown with a series of warbirds like: CT-133, Yak-52, Tiger Moth, Auster, and aerobatic trainers like SF-260D, Grob-115C, Zlin-242L. In his other field Kirk has been a Flight Instructor in flight schools. When a project writing is not conducted he is a First Officer having flown with Embraer-145, Learjet, Citation I, Kingair-100, Piper Cheyenne and Cessna-421C, averaging a total flight time of 2500 hours. He is listed as a reserve pilot in HAF.
George Chalkiadopoulos
Author - ResearcherGeorgios Chalkiadopoulos was born on March 7, 1966, in Volos, where he lives and works until today. Although his main professional activity is a chef, he has, since his early years, been interested in anything related to aviation history, with particular emphasis on World War II air operations. Over the last ten years, he has focused his attention on the research and systematic writing biographies of Greek-American airmen, who flew with fighters and bombers on the various war fronts during the Second World War. His long-standing research produced excellent results! His collaboration with the other two authors of the book, gave him the opportunity to publish for the first time a part of this particular research material, contained in his personal records. The continues growth of records for Greek heritage aviators is such, that it will soon lead to the issue of more volumes.
