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| Keywords: Walter C. Williams DVIDS708610.jpg en Walter C Williams arrived from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory Hampton Virginia on September 30 1946 at the Muroc Army Air Field He had been named the engineer-in-charge of the small group of five that came with him to the Rogers Dry Lakebed to take part in research flights of a joint NACA-Army Air Forces program involving the rocket-powered Bell XS-1 This established the first permanent National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics presence at the Mojave Desert site in California This small group grew in numbers to 27 and received permanent status as the NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit from Hugh L Dryden NACA's Director of Research on September 27 1947 Walt was named Head of the Unit On November 14 1949 the Unit along with the 100 employees became the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station with Walt Williams as Chief Next came the move from the South Base site to the new headquarters Bldg 4800 on the north-west shore of the Rogers Dry lakebed on the Edwards Air Force Base complex July 1 1954 saw another name change to the NACA High-Speed Flight Station with Walt remaining the Chief to a complement of about 225 employees Williams had received a Bachelor of Science Degree in aeronautical engineering from Louisiana State University Baton Rouge Louisiana in 1939 After graduation he was employed by the Glenn L Martin Company of Baltimore Maryland and later that same year joined the staff of the NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory where he worked as an engineer in the Flight Division During the period from September 1946 to July 1954 Williams supervised the activities of several research projects These included the first successful rocket-powered flight of the XS-1 made by Bell pilot Chalmers Goodlin on December 9 1946; the record breaking flight of A F Captain Chuck Yeager on October 14 1947 that exceeded the speed of sound; and the first flight of the jet-powered Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak by NACA pilot Howard C Lilly on November 25 1947 On March 10 1948 Herbert Hoover was the first NACA pilot and the first civilian to fly supersonically in the XS-1 Then came the testing of the tailless Northrop X-4 aircraft; the first flight of the variably swept wing Bell X-5 made by NACA pilot Joseph A Walker; the first NACA flight of the Convair XF-92A a delta wing configuration on April 9 1953; followed by the first Mach 2 flight on November 20 1953 flown by NACA pilot Scott Crossfield in the rocket-powered Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket Walt continued to be in charge during the many name changes for the NACA-NASA organization ending his stay as Chief of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Flight Research Center todays NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in September 1959 See DIRECTORS E-1364 for further information on Walter C Williams NASA Identifier NIX-E49-0170 2009-12-10 Glenn Research Center https //www dvidshub net/image/708610 708610 2012-10-10 16 27 WASHINGTON DC US PD-USGov People associated with Edwards Air Force Base Images from DoD uploaded by Fæ | ||||
