Osage native Bill Fox was the engineering and programming manager for the Lockheed/NASA/Air Force YF-12 Blackbird Research Program. Here, Fox holds a scaled-down replica of the spy plane he helped to develop.

Bill Fox was born on August 28, 1933, at Osage, Iowa, and grew up on a farm near Orchard, in rural Mitchell county, Iowa, and attended high school in Orchard, Iowa, graduating in 1951. He was the fifth child out of seven. His father was Ralph J. Fox, who was born in 1901 and died in 1980. His mother was Catherine M. Egan Fox, who was born in 1905 and died in 1988.

Back in 1936, when little Bill was only three, his family moved to the farm on the Cedar River near Orchard. We had a trout stream on the south edge of it and a large river (Big Cedar, or Red Cedar River) on the west edge. When I was too small to help in the farm operations I usually went fishing every day. It was a wonderful place to grow up and the memories from there are endless. The family sold the farm in 1991.

Right after high school Bill enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he was trained in naval

Home where Bill moved to in 1936, near Orchard, Iowa, close to the Cedar River.

aviation and spent a year off the Korean coast aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. After a year on the Oriskany he returned to the States and was assigned to a service squadron until his honorable discharge in June of 1954.

Bill married Karen in 1955. She died in 1998 after a three-year battle with cancer.

After his Navy service, he attended Iowa State University (then Iowa State College of Engineering) studying engineering, and later attended the University of Minnesota. After college, he worked for Honeywell in the Engineering Flight Test Division, and he helped develop requirements and testing programs for autopilots and other control systems for the most advanced military aircraft. This work soon took him to St. Louis, Missouri, White Sands, New Mexico, and then to California -- for various ongoing

Bill in front of an SR-71 blackbird

aircraft test programs. While in California he was assigned to the highly classified Blackbird program which was still in the concept phase. Initially Bill was responsible for developing the Flight Control Simulator, but it wasn't very long before he was responsible for the autopilot and stability augmentation system. And as the project progressed, he was involved with nearly every system on the Blackbird, including the inlet control system, instrumentation, and even pilot survival equipment.

Bill went on to become the engineering and programming manager for the Lockheed Blackbird Research Program.

When he entered the program in 1960, he wasn't told what he'd be working on or where he'd be working. He was just told that it would be "patriotic." That appealed to Bill, and he signed on.

The first official Blackbird flight took place in April 1962 at Area 51, in the Nevada

Bill with his wife, Karen.

desert -- a place often associated by some people with UFOs and anti-gravity airplanes. Bill worked at Area 51 during his time with the Blackbird. Although fast, the Blackbird could not stand very many G's, and as a result its turning radius was very large -- perhaps about a 100 mile radius.

The Blackbird was developed after the U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. The United States needed a plane that would fly higher and faster than the U-2 plane.

Bill in the 8th grade

Although the Blackbird is now out of service, it is still the fastest aircraft ever built and considered to be the greatest aviation achievement of the twentieth century. It can fly at three times the speed of sound, and can reach an altitude of 95,000 feet.

As stealth programs began in the late 1970's, it was back to Area 51 as Lockheed's Site Manager and Engineering Flight Test Manager for various stealth programs, some just now being

Bill's parents: Ralph and Catherine

released to the public. Following these programs Bill was assigned as Test Manager for the Blackbird and U-2 aircraft follow on development programs in Palmdale, CA.

After Lockheed started a new division in Texas, Bill transferred to that division, becoming the Engineering Flight Test Manager for the "Aquila," an unmanned aircraft used as a battlefield overhead target designator for the U. S. Army.

Fox retired in December 1988 and moved back to Osage. He then moved to Charles City, Iowa

Bill as a junior in high school

in 1999. He spends much of his time giving presentations about the Blackbird to various school and youth groups, ROTCs, experimental aircraft organizations, and clubs such as Kiwanis, throughout Iowa, -- having spoken to well over 10,000 people in all.

Bill was selected in 2002 as one of 20 charter members of the Blackbird Laurels Society which was organized to honor those deemed most responsible for the success of the Blackbird. In April of 2005 Bill received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Osage Educational Foundation for outstanding achievements and contributions to society following graduation.

In September 2008 Fox was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame at its annual banquet at Greenfield, Iowa.

Bill is a member of the VFW, American Legion, Amvets, Moose, Elks, Knights of Columbus, Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), Roadrunners Internationale (Past President), and the Blackbird Association.

 

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