Crossfield's plane wreckage found

Test Pilot's Body Said Found in Wreckage

By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press Writer

April 20, 2006, 2:14 PM EDT


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.

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.

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.

In 1960, Crossfield reached Mach 2.97 in an X-15 rocket plane launched
from a B-52 bomber. The plane reached an altitude of 81,000 feet. At
the time, Crossfield was working as a pilot and design consultant for
North American Aviation, which made the X-15. He later worked as an
executive for Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation.

More recently, Crossfield had a key role in preparations for the
attempt to re-enact the Wright brothers' flight on the 100th
anniversary of their feat near Kitty Hawk, N.C. He trained four pilots
for the Dec. 17, 2003, flight attempt in a replica of the brothers'
flyer, but poor weather prevented the take-off.

Among his many honors, Crossfield was inducted into the National
Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.

On Wednesday, his plane had left Prattville, Ala., around 9 a.m. en
route to Manassas, Va., not far from his home.


Blue skies, Scott.