Brian Welch

Headquarters, Washington, DC October 11, 1995

(Phone: 202/358-1600)

J. D. Hunley
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA
(Phone: 805/258-3447)

RELEASE: 95-179

NASA PIONEER WALTER C. WILLIAMS DIES

Walter C. Williams, a NASA pioneer whose career

stretched across more than a half century at the leading edge
of developments in air and space, died Oct. 7 at age 76.

Williams was the first director of what later became

the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, and later
served as NASA's Chief Engineer at Headquarters in Washington,
DC. A memorial service is planned for early November.

"Walt Williams was an American aerospace pioneer of

the highest order," said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin.
"He began serving his country during the era of piston-driven
aircraft, and for the next 50 years he was at the center of
events as the U.S. moved into the Jet Age and then into the
Space Age. Our country owes him and his generation a debt of
gratitude for all that they accomplished."

Williams began his government aerospace career with

the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics -- NASA's
predecessor agency -- in August 1940. During World War II, he
was project engineer in highly successful efforts to improve
the handling qualities, maneuverability, and high-speed
characteristics of fighters such as the P-47, P-51, and F6F.

In 1946, Williams became project engineer for the

rocket-powered X-1 research aircraft. In September 1946, he
headed a team of five engineers who arrived at Muroc Army Air
Base (now Edwards AFB) from NACA's Langley Memorial
Aeronautical Laboratory, Hampton, VA, (now the Langley
Research Center) to prepare for X-1 supersonic research
flights in a joint NACA-Army Air Corps program. This
established the first NACA-NASA presence at the Mojave Desert
site where Capt. Charles E. Yeager carried out the first
piloted supersonic flight on October 14, 1947.

Williams then became the founding director of the NACA

High Speed Flight Station that in 1976 became the Dryden
Center. In this assignment, he directed a great variety of
flight research programs, including the D-558-2, which
achieved the first flight at twice the speed of sound, and the
beginnings of the X-15 project, which set world altitude and
speed records, was the world's first hypersonic aircraft, and
was the most successful research aircraft to date. During
those years, Dryden became the premier flight research
installation in the United States.

In September 1959, Williams returned to Langley to

become Associate Director of the newly formed Space Task
Group, which was created to carry out Project Mercury.
Williams served as Director of Operations for the Project and
supervised all of the Mercury missions.

He next became Associate Director of NASA's Manned

Spacecraft Center, Houston, TX (now the Lyndon B. Johnson
Space Center). In this position, Williams was responsible for
Mercury factory check-out, pre-launch preparations, launch and
inflight activities, recovery operations and post-flight
analysis as well as future flight planning.

Williams left Houston in January 1963 to become Deputy

Associate Administrator in the Office of Manned Space Flight
at NASA Headquarters. He left NASA in April 1964 to become
Vice President and General Manager of the Vehicle Systems
Division, Aerospace Corp., where he was responsible for
systems engineering and technical direction of the Gemini
launch and target vehicles, Titan III space launch vehicles,
Manned Orbiting Laboratory, and Aerospace's activities at both
the Eastern and Western Test Ranges.

He left Aerospace Corp. in 1975 to return to NASA

Headquarters as Chief Engineer. He retired from that position
in July 1982 and became an aerospace consultant residing in
Tarzana, CA. He periodically served on NASA task forces in
his later years.

During his career, he twice received the NASA

Distinguished Service Medal and was nominated both to the
Meritorious Rank and Distinguished Rank in the Federal Senior
Executive Service. His other honors and awards include the
1981 Federal Engineer of the Year Award by the National
Society of Professional Engineers, and the American
Astronautical Society Space Flight Award in 1978. He also
received several awards from the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics -- in 1964, the Haley
Astronautics Award for his contributions to the advancement of
space flight and in 1962, the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award for
his contributions to supersonic and space flight.

He was born in New Orleans on July 30, 1919, and

graduated with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering
from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1939. In
1963 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of engineering
degree by LSU.

He is survived by his wife, Helen M. Williams; his

sons Charles M. Williams of Houston, TX, and Howard L.
Williams of Phoenix, AZ; and his daughter Elizabeth Ann Powell
of Redmond, WA.

-end-

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