Dwayne Williams, a helicopter pilot who has logged more than 16,000 hours of accident-free flying, is this year’s recipient of the HAI Salute to Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors excellence in management and leadership and is granted to an individual for long and significant service to the international helicopter community.
Since Williams learned to fly helicopters in 1965 with the U.S. Army, he has racked up 57 years of experience flying combat, offshore oil-support, flight-training, and test-pilot operations. After a tour in Vietnam, he spent two years as an instructor pilot at Fort Wolters, Texas. Post military, he flew offshore missions in the Gulf of Mexico for Petroleum Helicopters Inc. for almost five years.
From 1974 to 1979, Williams trained Iranian Army pilots in Isfahan for Bell. Upon returning to the U.S., he joined Bell as a production test pilot, demonstration pilot, and international delivery pilot. He later transferred to Bell’s experimental test-pilot staff and in 2000 became Bell’s chief pilot. At Bell’s Flight Research Center, he was the first to fly the Model 206L3, 400, AH-4BW SuperCobra, and 230. He was also a test pilot on the Bell XV-15 tiltrotor and Bell/Agusta BA609 tiltrotor.
After retiring from Bell in 2005, Williams became chief pilot and director of flight operations at MD Helicopters. In 2013, he joined Marenco as chief test pilot on the SH09, performing the aircraft’s first test flight. Today, he serves as chief test pilot and certification pilot for Aero Dynamix, which designs cockpits that are night-vision goggle compatible.