[JYO] Famed test pilot missing in flight - article on cnn.com

Famed test pilot missing in flight
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Authorities were searching early Thursday for a small 
plane registered to a famed test pilot that vanished from radar on Wednesday on 
a flight from Prattville, Alabama, to Manassas, Virginia.
Air traffic control last had contact with the plane registered to test pilot 
Scott Crossfield about 11 a.m. Wednesday when it was about 10 miles southwest 
of Ellijay, Georgia, about 60 miles north of Atlanta, an FAA spokeswoman told 
CNN.
The spokeswoman said she could not confirm who was aboard the single engine 
plane.
Crossfield, 84, was the first man to fly the X-15 rocket-powered jet and made 
aeronautical history in 1953 by becoming the first pilot to fly faster than 
Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). 
While at NACA -- the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the 
predecessor for NASA -- Crossfield was the test pilot for several research 
aircraft and won dozens of awards and honors for his pioneering work. He also 
served as an executive for Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation, 
according to his NASA biography.
When he retired in 1983, he received the NASA Distinguished Public Service 
Medal, the biography noted.
Crossfield's test pilot character was immortalized in the book by Tom Wolfe, 
"The Right Stuff," and portrayed by actor Scott Wilson in the movie of the same 
name.
Capt. Paige Joyner of the Civil Air Patrol also would not confirm the identity 
of the pilot but said the family had reported no contact. 
Joyner said the plane departed Prattville, about 12 miles northwest of 
Montgomery, at about 9 a.m.

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