National Air & Space Museum Honoree Bio

William G. (Bill) Thalmann

Bill was an aviation enthusiast for most of his life. In the mid-1970s, following a stint in the Army, he bought an ultralight which he flew out of the Orange County (VA) airport. Later, he used his GI Bill benefits to get his pilot’s license. His first solo was on April 10, 1979. I remember him telling me that he used to practice take-offs and landings at Dulles Airport because it wasn’t very busy back then.

Bill was a member of a flying club based at the Montgomery County Airpark for many years. Out of a desire to share his passion with others, and always looking for an excuse to go flying, he flew his parents, his sister and brother-in-law, many of his friends, and his young daughter. He flew friends to Mardi Gras in New Orleans one year, and he especially liked to fly to the Outerbanks and Cape May.

Bill and I met on January 15, 1995. We had both been divorced for a couple of years and we were introduced to one another by a mutual friend. Bill was an introvert with a quirky sense of humor, and I was smitten with him from the get-go. I was casually dating someone else, and I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself, so I didn’t break that off right away. Then Bill did two things. First, he sent me roses for Valentine’s Day—half red (passion) and half white (innocence). That got my attention. Second, he took me flying. And that, my friends, tipped the scale fully in Bill’s favor.

There would be other flights in our early days together. I distinctly recall a flight to an airport on the Maryland side of the Chesapeake Bay (St. Michaels, maybe) that had an inn nearby where he took me to dinner. I also recall a flight where we had a minor hiccup on the return to Montgomery Co. Airpark, which he deftly and calmly handled. To me, there was nothing sexier than his radio voice.

Time and money conspired to keep Bill from flying as much as he wanted, but he scratched the itch in other ways. We went to air shows and aviation museums, watched aviation related movies and documentaries, went parasailing, and he even jumped out of a perfectly good airplane once. The last thing we did together in public (December 5, 2023) was go to the National Air & Space Museum in DC.

After a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease and pulmonary fibrosis, Bill died from pneumonia on January 21, 2024. We were together for 29 years. Friends, if you want to “get the girl” (or guy), learn to fly.