FAREWELL TO AN AMERICAN LEGEND - SCOTT CROSSFIELD

An American legend has lost his life doing what he had always done - flying. Scott Crossfield a WWII fighter pilot who gained fame in the 50's as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base was found today in the Georgia mountains in the wreckage of a single engine plane he was piloting. Crossfield was 84. Immortalized in Tom Wolffs book, "The Right Stuff," Crossfield was the first pilot to fly the X-15 and to fly at both Mach 2 and 3 successfully. During the height of the test pilot era at the beginnings of jet engines Crossfield and Chuck Yeager would continually top each other as being the fastest man alive as they broke speed records with planes that were being flown much of the time for the first time. Crossfield truly had the , "Right Stuff, " as over a 60 year flying career which took him from general aviation through the Navy, test flying, Eastern Airlines and then back to his own Cessna. As a kid I remember reading in awe about the exploits of Yeager and Crossfield in WWII and through their days at Edwards. Hanging from the ceiling of my bedroom were assembled models of the planes that each flew as they competed setting speed records and going where no man had gone before. Each knew the risks that they would encounter every time they entered the cockpit to test a new plane or strive for a new speed record but their determination to advance jet aviation and discover new heights in both aviation and the aerospace industry compelled these legends and heroes to push the outside of the envelope. The space race or space exploration would have never been had it not been for the bravery of Crossfield and the test pilots at Edwards. Aviation as we know it would not have existed were it not for these pioneers who went into the very edge of the atmosphere in planes that many times failed causing them to bale out before crashing on the high desert. Scott Crossfield was a true American hero and legend.

Scott Crossfield 1921 - 2006

Ken Taylor