Famed test pilot Scott Crossfield was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of his plane, which crashed in northern Georgia. He was 84.
As the chief engineering test pilot for North American Aviation, Crossfield was involved in the design and testing of the X-15, a rocket plane that broke new ground in aviation, but was overshadowed in the public eye by the beginnings of the space program.
The X-15 program took flight to the edge of outer space, paving the way for every aspect of hypersonic (more than five times the speed of sound) flight. Among its accomplishments:
First use of maneuvering rockets for altitudes too high for conventional controls
First practical full-pressure suit for pilots
Discovery of the heating effects of hypersonic flight
Development of glide landing techniques later used on the Space Shuttle.
Twelve pilots flew the X-15 in 199 flights from 1959 to 1968, including Neil Armstrong, who would become the first man to walk on the moon.
The X-15 was the test bed for a number of technologies that would be used in the space program, including navigation systems later used on the Apollo lunar missions.
Length: 50' 3"
Wingspan: 22' 3"
Gross weight: 31,275 lbs.
Empty weight: 11,374 lbs
Top speed: Mach 6.72
Top altitude: 354,200 feet
In the 1950s, Scott Crossfield gained fame as part of a group of test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base immortalized in the book and the movie "The Right Stuff." He became the first man to fly twice the speed of sound in 1953.
In 1959 and 1960, Crossfield flew the X-15 30 times, surviving two emergency landings.
After his career as a test pilot, Crossfield continued to participate in aerospace design and became a leading proponent of revitalized aerospace research.
When he turned 80 in 2001, Crossfield was still flying 200 hours a year as a private pilot, according to the Civil Air Patrol.
