Mountain View

On 1/26/25, Kenneth William (‘Ken’) Billman, PhD died peacefully while in hospice only weeks after his 92nd birthday. He was predeceased by his beloved spouse of 68 years, Phyllis Ann (Baldwin) Billman in 2022. Ken is survived by his four children Karen Ann, Kenneth Joseph, Craig William, and Gregory Alan Billman, his grandson Spencer Billman, and Spencer’s two young sons, Wyatt, and Theodore.

Ken was born in Covington, KY and resided in Newport, KY with now deceased parents, Robert Francis and Catherine Ann Billman, and now deceased sister Esther (Billman) Tombragel and his younger, alive sibling Evelyn (Billman) Ludwig.

Ken was a prolific writer with over 100 publications, was a Fellow of the Directed Energy Professional Society, many patents, and a Corporate Fellow of Lockheed Martin, at the time one of 40 awardees chosen from among 140,000 of its technical staff. He was also one of the charter members of the CO2 Coalition.

Throughout his life, Ken pioneered advancements in advanced physics, mathematics, and technology. Ken built the world’s second ultrahigh vacuum system as part of his thesis research on the so-called Kramer Effect which was believed to be a new method of electron emission from materials. For eight years he thoroughly enjoyed the MIT teaching and research environment. His family financial requirements forced him to decide to join the nearby NASA Electronics Research Center where he quickly became a pioneer in the new field of lasers and quantum electronics. Fortunately, Ken was then invited by Dr. Hans Mark, the new Director of the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, his former colleague at MIT, to become a Laser Branch Chief at NASA Ames.

When returning from a monthly meeting between NASA center Directors, Dr. Mark confessed to having promised that Ken would deliver a 45-min presentation on Ken’s SOLARES (Solar Energy System) concept to illustrate how superior it was to the current space energy rage, the Space Solar Power System (SSPS). The Directors were so impressed with Ken’s presentation that the NASA Deputy Administrator finally had to stop its discussion after 1.5 hours. Later, a Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) comparison between SOLARES and SSPS concluded, “it is not clear that our energy crisis needs to resort to a space energy solution, but if it does, SOLARES would be preferred”.

He then joined the Palo Alto, CA Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in its Renewable Resources Division as manager of its inertial fusion programs. To bring some basis of comparison between this speculative future fusion power source and its chief competitor, fission power, he sponsored concept design studies, which he forced to follow EPRI’s electric power pricing guidelines, of heavy ion, light ion, and laser inertial fusion concepts. Unfortunately, this program was abruptly curtailed when the Three Mile Island mishap occurred and the electric power companies supporting EPRI decided to instead fund fission power plant safety training instead of future concepts like fusion power generation.

Ken was later appointed as Titan Systems SF Bay Area Manager. During the next four years he served as a SETA to the DoE HQ and the DoE Bay Area Office. For the NASA Langley RC he was PI and designer of the LYTE Space Shuttle Laser Module, the LYTE-TM. This 3-color laser became the first laser system to successfully operate continuously in space! He won also a DARPA contract for his Principle Design Lead of a novel Holographic Optic Space Power system that used multiband conversion to attain ~40% solar conversion efficiency. He was cited as Titan’s Outstanding Program Manager of the Year and other commendations.

In 1989, he decided to accept an offer from Lockheed and joined as a Senior Fellow.

There followed a 26-year career in many positions as principal investigator, program manager, and chief scientist. Then as a LM Corporate Senior Fellow, he became one of this select group of ~40 from among the ~140,000 LM engineering staff. His ensuing positions spanned all security levels, including those that only had a select five in the US who were briefed in. His first Lockheed assignment, as deputy to Dr. Alan Pike, was to lead the design of the optic and pointing and tracking systems for the multi-MW Free Electron Laser which was to be used at the US SDIO demo system to be implemented at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Dr. Pike was the Director of Lockheed’s five remaining ‘Star War’ programs. When Pike left Lockheed to accept a VP position elsewhere, Ken was then promoted to the Director position, with a portfolio of five important SDIO programs, each of value between $5M and $10M.

One program was LAGOS, Large Aperture Guidestar Operating System. The Air Force had just declassified the so-called Have Reach Program which had developed the concept of using an artificial guide star, laser-generated in the ionosphere, together with an adaptive transmitting optics system that could use it to obviate atmospheric turbulence and provide an un-scintillated intensity profile at a missile target. This was accepted and about six months later a guide star appeared over California.

One of the small SDIO programs that Billman inherited was the Airborne Laser Concept Study. Four companies had prepared White Papers for this Concept Study of an airborne laser system. These were Boeing, TRW, General Dynamics and Lockheed.

Ken joined with Boeing and TRW to obtain Air Force funding to carry out a detailed ABL concept design of 30 months duration. He served as Lockheed’s PM/PI. He also led the LM Space System Precision Pointing and Tracking IRAD Program. With the successful completion of the ABL Concept Design Study and his IRAD-funded scaled ABL beam and fire control demonstration laboratory that he led, which demonstrated the feasibility of the many novel optical design features, Team ABL (Boeing, Lockheed, and TRW) was awarded a multiyear program to design and develop the first ABL Demo aircraft.

Not wishing to manage such a large 350+ staff, Ken served as its Chief Scientist.

At the request of the deceased, no services are being held. Final arrangements by the Neptune Society. Ken was always dedicated to scientific inquiry and the advancement of knowledge. The family suggests that, if so inclined, donations be made to charities of your choice that support similar endeavors.