LuvmyBE18 From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 1 posts, RR: 0 Posted (7 years 1 month 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 1486 times:
Reports from NTSB indicate that Scott Crossfield, test pilot and the first guy to fly twice the speed of sound has crashed in Georgia. His Cessna 210 disappeared from ATC radar and wreckage has been found.
RANGER, Ga. — Scott Crossfield, the hotshot test pilot and aircraft designer who in 1953 became the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, was killed in the crash of his small plane, authorities said Thursday. He was 84.
Crossfield's body was found in the wreckage Thursday in the mountains about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, a day after the single-engine plane he was piloting dropped off radar screens on a flight from Alabama to Virginia. There were thunderstorms in the area at the time.
The cause of the crash was under investigation. Crossfield was believed to be the only person aboard.
AvObserver From United States of America, joined Apr 2002, 2430 posts, RR: 10 Reply 2, posted (7 years 1 month 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1445 times:
How ironic that such an uncommon pilot who flew the most dangerous aircraft missions in a long career would die on such a comparatively mundane flight. I suppose the weather and/or his advanced age could have been factors. In any case, a sad end to one of those steel nerved guys who truly had "The Right Stuff".
BeechNut From Canada, joined Apr 2004, 708 posts, RR: 9 Reply 3, posted (7 years 1 month 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1419 times:
First guy to fly twice the speed of sound, dies at age 84 flying his own plane?
Sad? Hardly. My hat's off to him. Dying at age 84 doing what you love doing best is certainly the way I'd like to leave this Earth...reminds me of a guy that used to be a director of a former employer of mine.
He played a nice 18 hole round of golf, polished off a nice steak dinner, and after dessert got up to make a speech to the board of directors and promptly dropped dead of a heart attack. Quick and relatively painless, and at age 86. He loved golf and lived his life up to the very last minute.
84 is a nice innings in anyone's book. It's sad that we must all pass on some day, but if you can, might as well die of a ripe old age doing what you love best, than wasting away in a nursing home.
Great pilot, will be sorely missed, I expect he's soaring the heavens higher than ever before now.
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