Aeronautical engineer, born in Berkeley, California, USA. His studies at Washington University were interrupted by World War 2, when he joined the US Navy as a pilot, mainly as an instructor. He later completed his degree in aeronautical engineering at Washington (1949), gaining a masters in 1950. That year he began work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and on 20 November 1953 he became the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound. Flying a Douglas D558-2 Skyrocket launched at 32 000 ft from a Boeing Superfortress, his speed topped 1320 mph. He later joined North American Aviation (195567) as chief engineering test pilot at the company's Los Angeles division, where he flew the X-15 rocket aeroplane and directed the Apollo, Saturn S-II, Hound Dog, and Paraglider projects. He served as executive for Eastern Air Lines (196773), and senior vice-president for Hawker Siddeley Aviation (19745). From 1977 until retiring in 1993, he was a consultant to the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. He was killed when the light aircraft he was piloting crashed during a storm in the mountains of N Georgia.
Albert Scott Crossfield (October 2, 1921 – April 19, 2006), normally referred to as Scott Crossfield, was an American naval officer, aviator and test pilot.
Biography
Born in Berkeley, California, Crossfield grew up in California and Washington. He served with the U.S. Navy as a flight instructor and fighter pilot during World War II. In 1950, he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' High-Speed Flight Station (now the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center) at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as an aeronautical research pilot. Crossfield joined the Navy because he could enter flight training two weeks earlier than a date offered by the Army Air Corps.
Over the next five years, he flew nearly all of the experimental aircraft under test at Edwards, including the X-1, XF-92, X-4, X-5, Douglas D-558-I Skystreak and the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket.
On November 20, 1953, he became the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound as he piloted the Skyrocket to a speed of 1,291 mph (2078 km/h, Mach 2.005). With 99 flights in the rocket-powered X-1 and D-558-II, he had — by a wide margin — more experience with rocketplanes than any other pilot in the world by the time he left Edwards to join North American Aviation in 1955. Crossfield flew 14 of the 199 total X-15 flight tests with most of these tests establishing and validating initial key parameters. Scott Crossfield not only designed the X-15 from the beginning, but introduced many innovations, to include putting engine controls of the rocket plane into the cockpit.
It was during this time that Crossfield was part of the Air Force's Man In Space Soonest project.
On June 8, 1959, he completed the airplane's first flight, an unpowered glide from 37,550 feet. Because of delays in the development of the X-15's mammoth 57,000 pounds force (254 kN) thrust XLR-99 engine, the early flights were completed with a pair of interim XLR-11 rocket engines.
Shortly after launch on his third flight, one of these engines exploded. Unable to jettison his propellants, Crossfield was forced to make an emergency landing during which the excessive load on the aircraft broke its back just behind the cockpit. During descent, the cockpit windows completely frosted and Crossfield was literally flying blind.
On June 8, 1960, he had another close call during ground tests with the XLR-99 engine. On November 15 of the same year, he completed the X-15's first powered flight with the XLR-99 engine. Two flights later, on December 6, he brought North American's demonstration program to a successful conclusion as he completed his final flight in the X-15.
Altogether, he completed 16 captive carry (mated to the B-52 launch aircraft), one glide and 13 powered flights in the X-15. The surprise X-15 retirement after its record setting Mach 6.72 flight because of funding cutbacks led pilot Joe Engle to remark that if he knew it was the last flight, he would have pushed it to even faster speeds. Crossfield in his remarks to a number of aviation groups cited this as one of few aircraft programs in which grown men cried when it was cancelled.
He remained at North American as systems director of test and quality assurance in the company's Space and Information Systems Division where he oversaw quality, reliability engineering and systems test activities for such programs as the Apollo command and service modules and the Saturn II booster.
In 1966, he became the division's technical director for research engineering and test.
In 1974-1975, he worked for Hawker-Siddeley as a senior vice president supporting HS 146 activities in the United States.
Crossfield was played by Scott Wilson in the 1983 film The Right Stuff.
From 2001-2003, Crossfield trained pilots Terry Queijo, Kevin Kochersberger, Chris Johnson and Ken Hyde for The Wright Experience, which prepared to fly a reproduction Wright Flyer on the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight on December 17, 1903. The training was successful, but the recreation of the flight on December 17, 2003 was ultimately not successful due to low engine power and the flyer's rain-soaked fabric covering which added considerably to its takeoff weight.
In one sense, it was only fitting that Crossfield conduct this experimental flight training because all pilots in this project had to unlearn their considerable flying experience and learn forgotten Wright brothers techniques.
Years earlier, Crossfield demonstrated his flight test skills on his very first student solo. His instructor was not available on the designated early morning, so Crossfield, on his own, took off and went through maneuvers he had practiced with his instructor, to include spin entry and spin recovery. During the first spin, Crossfield experienced vibrations, banging, and noise in the aircraft that he had never encountered with his instructor. In later years, Crossfield often cited his curiosity about this solo spin anomaly and his desire to analyze what was going on and why it happened, as the start of his test pilot career.
When asked to name his favorite airplane, Crossfield replied, "the one I was flying at the time," because he thoroughly enjoyed them all and their specialness.
Fatal Crash and Reactions
On April 19, 2006, a Cessna 210 piloted by Crossfield was reported missing while flying from Prattville, Alabama toward Herndon, Virginia. There were severe thunderstorms in the area when air traffic monitors lost radio and radar contact with Crossfield's plane.
While lightning itself poses a relatively minor risk to all-metal aircraft like Crossfield's, thunderstorms often contain turbulence severe enough to break an aircraft into pieces, as well as strong downdrafts, heavy rain, severe icing, and heavy hail. The Gordon County Sheriff's department reported that debris from Crossfield's aircraft was found in three different locations within a quarter mile, suggesting that the plane broke up while it was still in the air.
Scott was returning from Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, where he had given a speech to a class of young Air Force officers attending the Air and Space Basic Course. He was survived by his wife of sixty years, Alice Crossfield;
A special funeral for inurnment at the Arlington National Cemetary columbarium occurred on Tuesday, August 15, 2006.
Honors
Scott Crossfield received the Lawrence Sperry Award (1954), Octave Chanute Award (1954), Iven C. Crossfield is the only American to be honored in the White House for his contributions in advancing aeronautical science - or any other discipline - more than once, let alone two consecutive years. He has been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1983), the International Space Hall of Fame (1988), the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame (1998), Aerospace Walk of Honor (1990) and the National Air and Space Museum Trophy (2000). Even so, Crossfield often performed much of the dangerous initial test flight profiles with a small cadre of other test pilots before active duty Air Force and Navy test pilots were turned loose in the experimental aircraft. Crossfield opined his military, NACA/NASA, and manufacturer flight test job was to prepare military test pilots to earn recognition for aeronautical firsts by giving them solid flight data.
To friends and protegees, Crossfield was incredibly generous with his time and his insights. Crossfield replied, "I think you are in a much more precarious position, sir, as an elected official," then wryly remarked he predicted Watergate fallout well before any other person. To an even smaller group of those who were close, Crossfield discussed distinguishing capabilities of test pilots and who could be counted upon to get recurring reliable data on profile flights and those who were assigned to the chase planes.
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