Stephen Dillon, 70, Retired Aerospace Executive, Killed in Alaska Air Crash

Stephen P. Dillon, a retired McDonnell Douglas executive who was the Air Force’s command test pilot for the B-29 and B-36 bombers, has died in a plane crash.

Dillon was 70 and was working with his geologist son, John, when their small plane crashed on the northern side of the Brooks Mountain Range near the North Slope of Alaska.

The plane was reported missing July 26 when it failed to return to Fairbanks, Alaska, but the wreckage was not spotted until last week, according to a report in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.

Don Hanson, director of media relations for McDonnell Douglas and a longtime friend of Stephen Dillon, said the veteran flier was one of the few to make the transition from flying to developing aircraft.

He was involved in the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory that provided much of the technology later used in manned spacecraft, even though the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project itself was canceled.

As director of operations at the Douglas plant in Santa Monica, he oversaw production of Thor missiles and Delta space launch vehicles, as well as the S-IV upper stage for the Saturn launch rocket.

Dillon’s decorations include the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal.

A resident of Malibu, he is survived by his wife, Caroline, and 11 children.