Colonel J. (John) Victor Dallin (1897-1991) was an aviator and photographer who founded the Dallin Aerial Surveys Company in 1924. Born in Bristol, England, Dallin graduated from the School of Military Aeronautics, Oxford, and became a pilot at seventeen years old. He served as a pilot in the Royal Air Corps during World War I. During the war he became involved in aerial photography on a reconnaissance mission during the latter stages of the war.

In 1919 he moved to Philadelphia, and joined Bishop and Barker, a firm which did some aerial survey work. He went on to meet and marry Jeanne Moseman Dallin (1900-2005). Jeanne M. Dallin was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and moved to New York City with her family where she attended business school. The couple had three children: Jeanne Elaine Dallin Thompson (1922-2012), Joyce D. Fischer (1926-?), and J. Victor Dallin Jr. (1937-2012).

In the 1920s, Dallin worked at the Philadelphia Aero Service Corporation which operated a flying school in South Philadelphia. He began working there as a pilot and worked his way up to executive. In 1924, he left to establish his own company and started Dallin Aerial Surveys as a single proprietorship. He was the first manager of Philadelphia International Airport and Commanding Officer of 103rd Observation Squadron Penna. National Guard. Dallin retired in 1973 to Southern Pines, North Carolina.