The new Editor-in-Chief of AVweb‘s sister publication, Kitplanes magazine, says he intends to build on the magazine’s long history of home-built know-how and adapt it to an evolving market. Paul Dye began tinkering with airplanes when he was 13 and has finished two RV projects, one of which he built with his wife, Louise. He also tracked down and restored the aircraft that Van’s founder Dick VanGrunsven used as the proof of concept for the first RV kits. It’s now in the EAA Museum in Oshkosh. “I want Kitplanes magazine to be the place where people go to for building advice and flying advice,” Dye said in a podcast interview. “Both are equally important.” He noted a large percentage of homebuilt owners did not build the planes they fly and many have never bucked a rivet. He said they need advice on care and maintenance of their aircraft. Dye took over from Mary Bernard on Feb. 15. He comes to Kitplanes after a long and distinguished career with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Dye worked on every Space Shuttle mission and was the longest-serving flight director in NASA’s history. He served as flight director on 39 shuttle missions and lead flight director on nine of those. Before that, he was a flight controller on the earlier missions. His last position at NASA was as a flight director of the International Space Station. In addition to building and flying airplanes (he has a commercial certificate) he enjoys outdoor pursuits like mountaineering and caving and watersports like diving, power boating and sailing. He and his wife live in Friendswood, Texas.
