Free Republic

Scott Crossfield, the University of Washington graduate who was the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of his single-engine plane in Georgia.Crossfield, 84, dueled with Chuck Yeager a half-century ago in piloting rocket- powered aircraft. He helped design and then piloted the sleek X-15 rocket plane. He was a legend to aeronautic students at the UW, but he considered his cutting-edge career an ordinary profession.     AP   UW grad, pilot Scott Crossfield sits in a centrifuge machine to experience extreme acceleration. He was first to fly at...

Breaking on CNN web page from AP report.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Search teams combed the forests of northern Georgia Thursday for a missing airplane registered to legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound. Officials did not immediately know who was flying the single-engine plane or whether Crossfield was aboard when it left Alabama for Virginia on Wednesday morning.

EDWARDS AFB - Fifty years ago this month, A. Scott Crossfield became the first fastest man alive. On Nov. 20, 1953, shortly before the 50th anniversary of powered flight, Crossfield piloted the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket research aircraft to Mach 2 - twice the speed of sound, or more than 1,290 mph. Crossfield's milestone in aeronautical history came at a time when the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy were pushing the frontiers of flight, flying a stable of exotic experimental research airplances from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California's high desert. Higher, faster, farther was the mantra as...

LOS ANGELES - One was a rocket plane that flew at the edge of space and with blistering speed. The other was a series of odd-shaped aircraft designed to fly and land without wings. Both research programs are direct ancestors of today's space shuttle, making space travel in reusable, winged vehicles possible, and contributed much to aeronautical knowledge in general. A joint Air Force and NASA research program, the X-15 is considered one of the most successful ever, completing 199 flights from 1959 to 1968 using the skies and dry lake beds of Edwards Air Force Base. A. Scott Crossfield...