Francis Telesca was a soft spoken true gentleman with superb talent and I was fortunate to have numerous conversations with him over the years while working at MIA from 1986 to 2000.

Francis' architecture firm, Greenleaf Telesca won the contract to design this highly functional wide body aircraft hangar to National Airlines specifications when the county was seeking bidders. His firm came up with the largest cantilever roof worldwide (when it was built in 1971-1972 - I don't know about now) and the hangar can accommodate two B747 and one DC-10 aircraft and the doors can be closed behind them. All of the hangar doors can be opened and there are no internal vertical support beams to hinder maintenance operations inside the hangar. The hangar has won architectural awards for its design and functionality. It has been leased from the airport by American Airlines since the mid-to-late 1990's and they have other non-maintenance offices in the office tower on the south side of the hangar.

Greenleaft Telesca also designed the master plan for Florida International University in the western section of Miami-Dade County and the Primera Casa building on that campus, in addition to numerous schools for Dade County Public Schools.

Francis became a Miami-Dade Aviation Department employee in the 1986 and was Chief of Design and that's how I ended up being one of his many friends. I also knew his sweetheart wife Alyce at MIA and I extend my sincere condolences to her and the family.

Francis passed away on December 8th, 2005, at the age of 84.

(720 page views on < https://pbase.com/airlinerphotos before relocation here on 9/26/06)

Click on the below image to see Francis' obituary and an article concerning his death: