Albert Scott Crossfield
(October 2, 1921 – April 19, 2006), normally known as Scott
Crossfield, was an American naval officer and test pilot.
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
. From 1946 to 1950, he worked in the
Washington's Kirsten Wind Tunnel while earning his bachelor's(1949) and master's degrees (1950) in aeronautical engineering.
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
In those early days, it was called Muroc Field,
reverse spelling of the wealthy California Corum family who donated
the land to the Army Air Corps. Crossfield joined the Navy because
he could enter flight training two weeks earlier than a date
offered by the Army Air Corps.
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, including 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. He recovered, climbed to
a higher altitude, and repeated his spin entry and spin recovery,
getting the same vibration, banging and noise. On his third spin
entry, at yet an even higher altitude, he looked over his shoulder
as he was spinning and observed the instructor's door disengaged
and flapping in the spin. He reached back, pulled the door closed,
and discovered all the vibrations, banging and noise stopped.
Satisfied, he recovered from the spin, landed (actually, did
several landings), and fueled the airplane. He also realized his
instructor had been holding the door during their practice spin
entries and recoveries, and never mentioned this door quirk. 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.
Over the next five years, he flew nearly all of the experimental aircraft
under test at
Edwards, including the X-1
, Douglas D-558-I
and the Douglas D-558-II
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
(2,078 km/h, Mach
Skyrocket D-558-II surpassed its intended design speed by 25
percent on that day. 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
in 1955. As chief engineering test pilot
, he played a major role in the design
and development of the North
and its systems. Once it was ready to fly, it was
his job to demonstrate its airworthiness at speeds ranging up to
Mach 3 (2,290 mph). Because the X-15 and its systems were unproven,
these tests were considered extremely hazardous. 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, including putting engine controls of
the rocket plane into the cockpit. Previously, all engine
adjustments resulted from technicians making adjustments on the
ground based upon results of flight profiles. In a 2000 public
lecture, 'Scotty' (as he was known to friends) described how the
X-15 aeronautical calculations and design required computing power
that filled four 10'x12' rooms. He went on to say that these very
same calculations could be performed today on a notebook computer.
He also hinted that Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composite company
were performing pioneering work for a private aircraft to take-off
from an airport, fly into outer space, and return to that airport.
In 2004, White Knight carried Space Ship
to its successful launch and winning of the Ansari X-Prize
, the first attempt by a plane
since the X-15 cancellation.
It was during this time that Crossfield was part of the Air Force's
Man In Space Soonest
On June 8, 1959, he completed the airplane's first flight, an
unpowered glide from 37,550 feet. On September 17, 1959, he
completed the first powered flight. 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. He was uninjured
and the airplane was repaired. During descent, the cockpit windows
completely frosted and Crossfield was literally flying blind. Ever
resourceful, he removed a flight boot, took off his sock, and
created a peep hole to reference his chase plane wingman all the
way to landing.
On June 8, 1960, he had another close call during ground tests with
the XLR-99 engine. He was seated in the cockpit of the No. 3 X-15
when a malfunctioning valve caused a catastrophic explosion.
Remarkably, he was once again uninjured and the airplane was
completely rebuilt. 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. Although it had been his hope to eventually pilot one
of the craft into space, the USAF would not allow it, and gave
strict orders which basically amounted to "stay in the sky, stay
out of space."
Altogether, he completed 16 captive
(mated to the B-52
launch aircraft), one glide and 13 powered flights in the X-15. The
surprise retirement of the X-15 (due to funding cutbacks) after its
record-setting Mach 6.72 (4,520 mph) flight prompted pilot Joe Engle
to remark that he would have pushed it
to even faster speeds if he knew it was the last flight. In his
remarks to a number of aviation groups, Crossfield cited the X-15
as one of few aircraft that caused grown men to cry upon its
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 1967, he joined Eastern Air Lines
where he served as a
division vice president for research and development and,
subsequently, as a staff vice president working with U.S. military
and civilian agencies on air traffic control technologies.
In 1974-1975, he worked for Hawker
as a senior vice president supporting HS 146
activities in the United States. In 1977, he
joined the United
States House of Representatives
Committee on Science and
Technology where he served, until his retirement in 1993, as a
technical adviser on all aspects of civil aviation research and
development and became one of the nation's leading advocates for a
reinvigorated research airplane program.
Crossfield was played by Scott
in the 1983
Crossfield co-authored "Always Another Dawn" a story of a rocket
test pilot, with Clay Blair Jr, and authored "Onward and Upward"
Research Airplanes, Act II.
From 2001 to 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
' first flight on
December 17, 1903. The training was successful, but the re-creation
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. The Wright replica
did fly successfully at Kitty Hawk after the Centennial jubilee but
without media coverage.
In one sense, it was only fitting that Crossfield conducted this
experimental flight training because all pilots in this project had
to unlearn their considerable flying experience and learn forgotten
Wright brothers techniques.
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. To young teens, he would compare
airplanes to different girls or boys they would date: each one was
special and a learning experience.
Fatal crash and reactions
19, 2006, a Cessna 210 piloted by
Crossfield was reported missing while flying from Prattville,
Alabama toward Manassas, Virginia. On April 20, authorities confirmed his body
was found in the wreckage of his plane in a remote area of Gordon County,
There were severe thunderstorms
in the area when air traffic
monitors lost radio and radar contact with Crossfield's
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
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 three years, Alice Crossfield; six children; and nine
grandchildren. His funeral ceremony was held at the Arlington
National Cemetery on August 15, 2006.
On September 27
, the National Transportation
issued an advisory stating the cause of his crash
to be as follows: "The pilot's failure to obtain updated en route
weather information, which resulted in his continued instrument
flight into a widespread area of severe convective activity, and
the air traffic controller's failure to provide adverse weather
avoidance assistance, as required by Federal Aviation
Administration directives, both of which led to the airplane's
encounter with a severe thunderstorm and subsequent loss of
Scott Crossfield received the Lawrence Sperry Award (1954),
Octave Chanute Award
Iven C. Kincheloe Award (1960), American
Rocket Society (ARS) Astronautics Award (1960), Harmon International Trophy (1961 at the
House by President John F.
Kennedy), Collier Trophy (1961 at
House by President Kennedy in 1962), NASA Distinguished
Public Service Medal (1993), and was named Honorary Fellow by the
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1999).
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),
Walk of Honor (1990) and the National Air and Space
Museum Trophy (2000).
Posthumously, he has been awarded
the Hoyt S. Vandenburg Award, the Paul Tissandier Diploma, the
Victor A. Prather Award, and the Donald D. Engen Award.
had an elementary school named in his honor near his last
residence, in Herndon,
Virginia (a community just northeast of Dulles
A ribbon named after him is one of the
Aerospace Education Awards in the Civil
Senior Members program.
He was also most proud of his A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace
Education Teacher of the Year Award which is awarded annually at
what is known as the "Oscar Night" in aviation, the Annual
Enshrinement Ceremony Weekend at the National Aviation Hall of Fame
held each year at the end of July in Dayton, Ohio.
Crossfield received an honorary doctor of science degree from the
Institute of Technology in 1982.
While he was celebrated as a daring test pilot, he claimed that his
actual profession was an engineer. "I am an aeronautical engineer,
an aerodynamicist and a designer. My flying was only primarily
because I felt that it was essential to designing and building
better airplanes for pilots to fly." . 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
Crossfield opined his military, NACA/NASA, and manufacturer flight
test jobs were to prepare military test pilots for the tasks in
which they earned recognition for aeronautical firsts by giving
them solid flight data.
To friends and protegees, Crossfield was incredibly generous with
his time and his insights. A morning meet for a cup of coffee could
easily turn into a three-hour chat about almost anything. One such
chat was about his first meeting with Vice President Nixon and test
flight; Nixon remarked about the danger of flying. Crossfield
replied, "I think you are in a much more precarious position, sir,
as an elected official," then wryly remarked that 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.
- " Famed test pilot missing in flight."
News Network. April 20, 2006.
- " Test Pilot's Body Said Found in Wreckage."
Press. April 20, 2006.
- AVweb article: Scott
Crossfieldd Final Flight accessed 4
- NTSB RELEASES FINAL REPORT ON ACCIDENT THAT KILLED FAMED
AVIATOR SCOTT CROSSFIELD - September 27, 2007 - Obtained same date.
- NTSB Scott Crossfield Fatal Accident Final
Report accessed 4 Oct 2007
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Famed aviator Scott
Crossfield dies in plane crash accessed 4 Oct 2007
- Thompson, Milton O. (1992)
At The Edge Of Space: The X-15 Flight Program, Smithsonian
Institution Press, Washington and London. ISBN 1-56098-107-5