Foil: 63 Panel: 2 Column: 2 Line: 24

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mary Corcoran

William (Bill) Lawrence Corcoran was born on 30 July 1928 in Buffalo, NY, and was raised in Beamsville, Ontario, Canada by his mother, Jean Bruce.

When he was 17 years old, Bill travelled to Buffalo and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He served on the USS PGM-24, USS Clay, and USS Tomich. He was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1946 as a Seaman First Class. After completion of his high school education, Bill entered Purdue University in 1948 and graduated as an Aeronautical Engineer in 1952.

Bill was recruited by Douglas Aircraft while he was still a student at Purdue, and began working for them at their manufacturing plant in Santa Monica, CA following his graduation. While there, he met his future wife, Virginia (Jeanne) Elizabeth Falco, who was a nurse at a nearby Santa Monica hospital. They were married on 24 December 1954 in Las Vegas, NV.

They lived in Santa Monica until 1955 when Bill accepted a position with Avro Aircraft in Toronto, Canada to work on the CF-105 Avro Arrow aircraft. With the sudden cancellation of the Arrow project by the Canadian government, Bill and Jeanne relocated to Saginaw, MI where Jeanne’s family lived. While in Saginaw, they had their first three children, Jamie Maureen, William Lawrence, Jr, and Timothy Falco. Bill attended law school for a short time, but returned to aeronautical engineering to work for Chrysler Aerospace.

In the fall of 1960, Chrysler Aerospace transferred Bill and the family to Huntsville, AL to work on the Saturn V rocket program. Shortly thereafter, Bill accepted a position with NASA and worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center with Dr. Wernher von Braun. Bill and Jeanne had two more children in Huntsville, Mary Tara, and Kelly Maria.

In 1975, Bill transferred from NASA to the Energy Research and Development Administration (a predecessor to the Department of Energy), and the family moved from Huntsville to Falls Church, VA in 1976. While at the Department of Energy, Bill worked on many interesting projects, including the installation of solar panels on the White House during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, and as project manager for solar site installations around the world.

Aeronautics remained his true passion, and he submitted proposals to NASA during his retirement. One proposal was to establish the technical feasibility of a unique zero-emissions aircraft, with the following innovative characteristics:

• Dual lifting surfaces
o Blended wing-body
o Semi-annular upper wing
• Twin pusher propellers driven by highly efficient electrical motors
• Ultra-lightweight fuel cell electrical generating system