Janet R. Daly Bednarek is an aviation historian in a fitting place—Dayton, Ohio, the home of Wilber and Orville Wright. As Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Dayton, she enjoys debunking myths about these former Dayton bicycle repairmen.

Bednarek has worked as a military aviation historian for the USAF at Bolling AFB, the Pentagon, and Wright-Patterson, AFB. She has been a professor at the University of Dayton since 1992. Bednarek received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987.

Her books and articles on aviation include America's Airports: Airfield Development 1918-1947, "City Planning and Municipal Airports, 1927-40" in Planning Perspectives 15 (2000) and the forthcoming Dreams of Flight: General Aviation in the United States (College Station, Texas A&M University Press, 2003).

Bednarek is busy this year coordinating symposia and speaking about the centennial of flight. She sees this year as an opportunity for Dayton to tell its side of the story about the invention of flight

She serves on the board of directors of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. She also practices what she teaches: she is part of the six percent of female U.S. licensed pilots.