Walter C. Williams; NASA Pioneer

Walter C. Williams, a NASA pioneer whose work led to the first manned spaceflights, has died.

Williams, founder of what became the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, died in his sleep last Saturday at his Tarzana home. He was 76.

“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.”

“Walt was involved with the X-1 and X-15 and then he participated in Mercury, Gemini and Apollo [space programs],” said Bill Dana, chief engineer at Dryden. “He had his hand in every single manned spaceflight this country has had. . . . He was a very productive man.”

Born July 30, 1919, in New Orleans, Williams received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Louisiana State University. After graduating, he began his career with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)--the predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration--in 1940. During World War II, Williams was project engineer on numerous projects that led to improvements in the handling qualities, maneuverability and high-speed characteristics of fighter planes, including the P-47, P-51 and F6F.

In 1946, Williams led a NACA engineering team that went to Muroc Army Air Base (now Edwards Air Force Base) to prepare for supersonic research flights by the X-1, establishing the first NACA-NASA presence at the Mojave desert site where the first piloted supersonic flight was achieved in 1947.

As founding director of the NACA High Speed Flight Station, which eventually became the Dryden Flight Research Center, Williams directed flight research programs such as the D-558-2, which accomplished the first flight at twice the speed of sound. He also directed the X-15 project, which, as the world’s first hypersonic aircraft, set world speed and altitude records and was the most successful research aircraft up to that time, according to Dryden historian J. D. Hunley.

Under Williams’ leadership, Dryden became the premier flight research installation in the United States.

Williams’ eventful 50-year career also included stints as associate director of the Space Task Group (which carried out Project Mercury) and NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, in Houston. He was also an administrator at Aerospace Corp., where he oversaw the technical aspects of the Gemini launch.

In 1975, Williams became chief engineer at NASA headquarters, where he remained until his retirement in 1982. Settling in Tarzana, he worked as an aerospace consultant and occasional NASA task force member.

Williams received many honors, including the NASA Distinguished Service medal--twice--and an honorary doctorate of engineering from LSU. He also received the Haley Astronautics Award and the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award for his contributions to supersonic and space flight.

Williams is survived by his wife, Helen M. Williams; sons Charles M. Williams of Houston, Tex., and Howard L. Williams of Phoenix, Ariz., and his daughter, Elizabeth Ann Powell of Redmond, Wash.

No funeral plans have been announced. A memorial service will be held in November.