To Remember a Test Pilot

[KG4CGC]

The link (http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060420125709990006&ncid=NWS00010000000001)
He was a pioneer and a patriot ... and just darn loved aircraft! I'm not sure but I think he was almost 85.

"The Cessna 210A in which Crossfield died was a puny flying machine compared with the rocket-powered aircraft he flew as a test pilot. During his heyday, he routinely climbed into some of the most powerful, most dangerous and most complex pieces of machinery of his time, took them to their performance limits or beyond - or "pushed the envelope," as test pilots put it - and usually brought them back to Earth in one piece."

The rest of the article is quite interesting and a tribute to Mr. Crossfield. It's new to me and I'm surprised if I ever missed his story on the History Channel.

[wv6z]

Man, talk about an awesome life!!!

[KA4DPO]

I have read a lot about Mr. Crossfield over the years and I'm fairly convinced that something, besides the weather happend to him that caused him to black out or become incapacitated. He was in the same league with Chuck Yeager, Guss Grissom, and Alan Sheppard. All of those guys could have flown a feather duster through a tornado.

[WA5KRP]

Nobody will miss him more than Gen. Chuck Yeager. The two guys were intensely competitive but would give each other the shirt off their back.

Truly a remarkable pair of men. Legendary. Thanks for the link, Charlie.



WA5KRP
Texas

[w3sy]

Yeah, no doubt something happened to the dood, or to his plane. The report mentioned bad weather in the area, but even most rookie pilots [other than JFK, Jr (sk)] know to scoot around that stuff or just land it.

[n2nh]

I read and saw both Space and The Right Stuff. These guys had some very impressive accomplishments:

Quote[/b] ]There were some close calls. During an X-15 flight in 1959, one of the engines exploded. The emergency landing broke the aircraft's back just behind the cockpit, but Crossfield was not injured, according to the Edwards Air Force Base Web site.

Less than a year later, a malfunctioning valve caused a catastrophic explosion during a ground test while Crossfield was in the cockpit. He again escaped injury.

My favorite scene in the Right Stuff was when nobody wants to test the Super Starfighter. Yeager takes the NF-104A up and gets into a flat spin after flaming-out the engines on the way down.
http://ourworld.cs.com/Rachey01129/US+Air+Force/NF-104.jpg

[k9cn]

Wow. When I was a kid, the X-15 was hands down the most exciting ride around and Mr. Crossfield was the epitome of cool -- more so than even John Glenn and the other Mercury astronauts.

It's a cliche, but no less true, that I'm glad he died doing what he loved. While it's not quite up there with getting shot by a jealous husband at 94, he had a long, exciting life and it beats wasting away in a hospital bed.