William H. Mason, 2021

Dr. Bill Mason was a dedicated educator at Virginia Tech from 1989 until his passing in 2019. He was a lifelong Hokie, having earned his bachelor’s degree in 1971, a master’s degree in 1972, and a doctoral degree in 1975, all in aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech.

Dr. Mason was deeply passionate about airplanes. As a teenager, he spent countless hours building and flying model airplanes. As an undergraduate student at VT, he gained practical experience during summers working at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri, on various F-4 aircraft projects including the ‘swing wing’ F-4, and at the Edwards Air Force Base, California, on the U.S. Army Huey Cobra helicopters.

In 1974, he began his professional career with Grumman in Long Island, New York. Over the next 15 years, he made highly valuable contributions to many high-profile projects. Examples include (i) the X-29, an experimental aircraft with a forward-swept wing and canard; (ii) the NASA/Grumman Research Fighter Configuration with supercruise and maneuvering capabilities; and (iii) the SC3 Wing Concept which set a record for low drag at high-lift supersonic performance.

Dr. Mason returned to VT in 1989 and immediately devoted himself to sharing his knowledge with undergraduate and graduate students, his colleagues, and student design teams. He taught courses in aircraft design; applied computational aerodynamics; and configuration aerodynamics while performing research in aerospace systems design; multidisciplinary optimization; and applied aerodynamics. His legacy lives on with a large number of students he educated and advised by generously sharing his unique insights in aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. He co-authored Applied Computational Aerodynamics: A Modern Engineering Approach, one of the first textbooks in the world on this subject for undergraduates. In addition, he also authored an unpublished manuscript of Configuration Aerodynamics textbook, and authored or co-authored more than 100 technical papers and reports.

A consummate professional and an unpretentious man, he combined his love of aircraft and vast knowledge and experience of design and configuration aerodynamics in extraordinary ways to make a lasting difference.