[JYO] Sorry to report - Famed test pilot found in wreckage of plane - cnn.com

Famed test pilot found in wreckage of plane
Crossfield was first man to fly at twice the speed of sound
Thursday, April 20, 2006; Posted: 2:35 p.m. EDT (18:35 GMT) 
RANGER, Georgia (AP) -- 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, Virginia, 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, North Carolina. He trained four pilots for the December 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, Alabama, around 9 a.m. en route to 
Manassas, Virginia, not far from his home.

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