AP: Scott Crossfield's body found in Georgia plane wreckage

[VolcanoJen]

I can't find the AP's updated article, but CNN confirms that the body found in the plane wreckage was that of legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield, the first pilot to fly at twice the speed of sound.

He was 84 years old. Godspeed, Mr. Crossfield.

UPDATE: AP Link: Legendary Pilot Scott Crossfield Killed In Small Plane Crash

RANGER, GA. - Legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of a single-engine plane in the mountains of northern Georgia, his son-in-law said.

Searchers discovered the wreckage of a small plane about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, but the Civil Air Patrol didn't immediately identify the body inside.

Ed Fleming, Crossfield's son-in-law, told The Associated Press from Crossfield's home in Herndon, Va., that family had been told it was Crossfield.

Crossfield's Cessna was last spotted in the same area on Wednesday while on flight from Alabama to Virginia. There were thunderstorms in the area when officials lost radar and radio contact with the plane at 11:15 a.m., said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Here is his biography:

Scott Crossfield Bio

Earlier AP article:

Search for plane registered to legendary pilot turns up wreckage

Also see this earlier thread by DemoTex:

Famed test pilot missing in flight

[xultar]

1. The weather was JACKED up around here yesterday. I'm SHOCKED

he took off in a small plane. The thunder was shaking my house.

[VolcanoJen]

5. The whole story is disturbing

I have read that the weather was just god-awful.

[CottonBear]

11. I live in NE GA. The weather was bad all day yesterday.

It was ominous and threatening and thre were severe thunderstorm watnings south of my location. :(

[japple]

34. I live in NW Georgia about 6. mi. from Ranger. The thunder was so loud

we could hear it inside the OR of the hospital where I work. And it's on the middle floor of the hospital--not near any windows. It was wicked. At timies it felt like the building was shaking.

[saigon68]

2. This sucks

[tonekat]

3. Very sad to learn this. Condolences to his family. n/t

[MADem]

4. I'm wondering if he just didn't go gently, since he didn't have

time to even signal that anything was amiss. Was he alone?

[VolcanoJen]

6. Only one body was found inside the wreckage

It appears he was flying solo.

[Hobo]

7. Another Legend..........

Godspeed Scott Crossfield....RIP



-Hobo

[napi21]

8. I'm sad for his family, but I'm sure he went the way he would have

prefered. I don't know any test pilots, but have several pilots as friends. They LOVE IT, and if they have to die in an accident, a plane would be their wish. A test pilot must feel even stronger than that!

[rusty_parts2001]

9. He had the "Right Stuff"

[DemoTex]

10. Crossfield epitomized the salute "A good stick." RIP, sir.

As I said in the earlier LBN thread:

Unfortunately, the weather in that area at that time yesterday looked very much like the weather in that area on April 4, 1977, when Southern Airways flight 242 (DC-9) crashed at New Hope, Georgia, after penetrating a severe thunderstorm and suffering a cracked windshield and a double engine failure. I even commented on that Southern crash in an email to a friend yesterday. I wrote " .. and it looks like the ATL arrivals over RMG (Rome, Ga, NW of ATL) are shut down for a while .. looks like it did when 242 bought the farm.".

It took a special breed to ride that X-15 rocket. RIP brave man, RIP.






A. Scott Crossfield 1921-2006

[VolcanoJen]

12. Beautiful tribute, DemoTex.

RIP, sir.

[OzarkDem]

16. Thanks for the video clips

Great and brave man.

[karlrschneider]

27. Amen to that, Mac. No better way to end a shift methinks.

RIP sir.
:toast:

[DemoTex]

30. "Chase" on Crossfield's historic X-15 flight was flown by Chuck Yeager.

Chuck was flying an F-86. My guess is that if these clips are from the first flight, they were from Yeager's F-86 gun cameras.


F-86 chase plane (Yeager)


X-15 (Crossfield) from Yeager's point-of-view

[sidpleasant]

48. I'm guessing it was shot through the canopy

At the end of the clip something dark slips into and out of the right side of the frame. I suspect that's part of the instrument panel or the canopy framing.

[Cooley Hurd]

32. Mac, you post rocks...

Thank you.:patriot:

Rest in Peace, Scotty...:cry:

[japple]

35. That X-15 must have been about as sturdy as a modern beer can. n/t

[Jacobin]

40. Great tribute to a great man

Here's to Scott:

:toast:

[Jazz2006]

43. Terrific tribute, DemoTex

RIP, Mr. Crossfield.

:toast:

Old pilots never die; they just go to a higher plane.

[Vidar]

13. Challenging the heavens isn't a bad way for a pilot to go, RIP

[leesa]

14. I would guess that would about be the perfect way to die for him...he was

probably smilin'

[Doctor_J]

15. 84 years old, and dies doing what he loves

You can't bet that.

[depakid]

33. My sentiments exactly

Beats withering away in an old folks home....

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Famed test pilot Scott Crossfield dies in air crash, family says

<on edit ... note to VolcanoJen: I missed your post when I started my post. Didn't mean to step on your toes.>

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/14388616.htm

RANGER, Ga. - Legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of a single-engine plane in the mountains of northern Georgia, his son-in-law said.

Searchers discovered the wreckage of a small plane about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, but the Civil Air Patrol didn't immediately identify the body inside.

<snip>

Crossfield, 84, had been one of a group of civilian pilots assembled by the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the forerunner of NASA, in the early 1950s at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager had already broken the speed of sound in his history-making flight in 1947. But Crossfield set the Mach 2 record - twice the speed of sound - in 1953, when he reached 1,300 mph in NACA's Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket.

All media are now confirming that the crashed plane was Crossfield's.

This guy and Chuck Yeager were among my childhood heroes. The zoom-zoom guys who flew the skies above Edwards AFB in the early 50s, defying conventional wisdom and the demons that supposedly lived up in the clouds above the machs.

A fair bit of his story was told - along with Yeager's and the Mercury astronauts - in the book and later the movie The Right Stuff.


With the X-15 strapped to his butt .......


.... and recently, watching the second flight for the X-prize.

[OzarkDem]

18. RIP Mr. Crossfield

He was a real hero. It took a lot of guts and skill to be a test pilot in those days.

The Right Stuff is a great book.

[Kolesar]

24. Crossfield was an aeronautical engineer and a test pilot

I loved that book, too. The movie, too. The scene with Veronica Cartwright playing Mrs. Grissom after Grissom's capsule sunk and almost killed him was my favorite part.

[0007]

19. RIP

[QuettaKid]

21. had no idea he was still alive. RIP. nt.

.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

20. Bless his heart

Eighty-four years old and flying solo.

There's some kind of immortality for ya.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Flying for him musta been like breathing for us

It was just what he did ...... and did ....... and did.

[Lindacooks]

22. Well, he died doing what he loved - and at 84, that ain't bad.

eom

[Kolesar]

26. I hope I am still *driving* at 84

You know, it's a good thing Crossfield did not kill anybody. I am sure his reactions were a bit slow for a pilot.

[Blue_Tires]

25. wow...still flying at 84!

[Stinky The Clown]

28. Yanno, its interesting ... back 'in the day' there were two groups of ....

test pilots. Three, actually, if you separate the guys like Yeager from the astronauts. The AF guys who were getting military pay. And the civilian pilots, who were getting boatloads of money for doing essentially the same thing.

No difference in what it took to do the job, and no differences in the chances they'd put their noses into the dessert.

That scene with Sam Shepard and (was it?) Barbara Hershey as Chuck and Glynnis Yeager riding in the dusty dessert kinda said what it was like. An almost ascetic life for the winged pilots while the Mercury guys got the glory and the civilian guys got the bux.

[5thGenDemocrat]

36. Two kinds of pilots...

"You got your prime pilots who get all the hot planes -- then you got your pud-knockers who dream of getting the hot planes. Now, what are you two pud-knockers gonna have, hmm?" -- Pancho, from "The Right Stuff"
John
Scott Crossfield and Chuck Yeager were prime pilots. Rest in peace, Mr. Crossfield.

[Ezlivin]

29. He has slipped the surly bonds of earth

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space...
...put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

[Cooley Hurd]

31. Here's to one of the best...

Thank you Scotty, for your INVALUABLE contibutions to aviation.:patriot:

Scotty's one of my heroes... :cry:

[DemoTex]

37. NBC just reported that Crossfield's airplane was a Cessna 210.

That is one classy single-engine airplane. It would be my choice too, if I could afford one. I'm glad to hear that Scott owned a Cessna 210 Centurion. I hope it gave him great pleasure in his golden years.

[karlrschneider]

49. I always had some reservations about the strutless Cessnas

like the 210, RG, 177 etc. But of course never refused to fly any of 'em, however I can't help wondering if a spar failure in turb might have been a factor.
K

[IndianaGreen]

38. He had the right stuff!

and he was a civilian test pilot to boot!

I remember reading about him and the X-15 rocket plane when I was very young.

Godspeed, Scotty!

[Rhiannon12866]

39. Godspeed, Mr. Crossfield.

And a kick from me.:-(

[El Supremo]

41. He was a student of the whole age of aviation.

Scott Crossfield, pilot trainer, and Kevin Kochersberger, pilot candidate, look over the last-minute details of the Wright Flyer replica.

[Paladin]

42. This Really Saddens Me

Yet another boyhood hero gone. I guess you have to have a few years on you, like I have, to recall what an absolute badass Crossfield was, back in the 50's and 60's.

And still flying at 84. That's impressive.....

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

44. He passed while flying. A fitting way to go.

My condolences to his family, and to the aviation community at large.

[The Traveler]

45. Crossfield was one of my boy-hood heroes

But then, my dad worked for the Air Force so I guessit was inevitable. My room was a chaos of airplane pictures, models, and other artifacts. Featured prominantly amidst the decorative wreckage was a huge poster of the X-15.

84 and still flying ... this man had a full, full life.

[Ryano42]

46. He's up at Pancho's...

Having a Steak, with all the trimmings. :)

Scotty...you are Cleared for Landing. :patriot:

[Stinky The Clown]

47. You hafta see this ... from Chuck Yeager's website

http://www.chuckyeager.com/
(all text cut and pasted from the website - not a word is mine)

Scott Crossfield was one of the team that courageously explored the frontiers of space and we will miss him.

Scott Crossfield and Mary Anne Thompson (Air Force Association Education Fund). This photo was taken Monday afternoon at the Prattville, AL, airport just after he'd landed. He had come down to Maxwell AFB to speak to the new 2nd Lts. on Tuesday. He took off Wednesday morning to go home.