William Burdette McLean (1914–1976) was a United States Navy physicist, who conceived and developed the heat-seeking Sidewinder missile. The Sidewinder was the first truly effective

air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

; its variants and upgrades are still in active service. The son of a Presbyterian minister, McLean attended Caltech, where he took three degrees in physics, finishing with a doctorate in 1939. During World War II, McLean worked on

ordnance Ordnance may refer to: Military and defense *Materiel in military logistics, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. **The military branch responsible for supplying and developing these items, e.g., the Unite ...

equipment and testing at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. Following the war, he moved to the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS), Inyokern, California (now the

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the United States Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Installat ...

), where he led the project team developing the Sidewinder missile from 1945 to 1954. In April 1954, he was appointed technical director, the senior civilian position at the Station, a position which he held till 1967. For his work on the Sidewinder, he was awarded $25,000 and a plaque from President Eisenhower. He then served as technical director for the Navy's submarine-warfare research center in San Diego until 1974. McLean was married to Edith LaVerne "LaV" McLean (died December 19, 2007). The Memorial Award for Dr. William B. McLean was established in 1968, to recognize creativity in employees who furthered the mission at China Lake with significant inventions. In 2008, the Navy announced that the

dry cargo ship A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

would be named in honor of Dr. McLean. On 16 April 2011, the ship was launched, sponsored by Dr. McLean's niece, Margaret Taylor.

References

External links

W. H. Pickering, "William B. Mclean", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1985)
1914 births 1976 deaths California Institute of Technology alumni United States Navy civilians 20th-century American physicists Recipients of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service {{US-navy-bio-stub