Senior naval officers and government officials will recognize the career of Dr. William B. Morgan in a 10:00 a.m. naming ceremony April 27 at the U.S. Navy's Large Cavitation Channel (LCC). This unique engineering test facility will bear the name of the former head of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division's Hydromechanics Directorate who retired in December after 50 years of service to the nation. The facility will be known as the William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel.
The ceremony takes place ten years after the April 1991 dedication of the facility. Since that time, the LCC has provided almost 6,000 hours of advanced hydrodynamic and hydroacoustic testing. U.S. Navy test programs supported include the latest naval
ship designs such as the Virginia and Seawolf Class submarine and Arleigh Burke Class destroyer. The LCC has also
supported basic research programs with
universities such as Mississippi State, University of Michigan, California Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University.
The LCC is the largest and most technically advanced, pressurized, closed-loop, recirculating water tunnel in the world. The hydrodynamic and hydroacoustic test facility supports advanced ship research and design testing as well as basic research. The buildings and land were originally part of a commercial installation on President's Island. After several years of leasing during the construction and start-up phase, the Navy purchased the site in 1994.