The Right Stuff......
first to break the sound barrier.Yeager won that round primarily because the government wanted a military man to be the record setter and Scott by then was a civilian.
But Scott took every other honor thereafter, being the first man through Mach 2 and then Mach 3. He had more flights in the experimental "X" planes of that era than any other pilot and in fact Scott actually helped design the X-15 and made the first 3 flights in it. Scott was generally accepted as the best test pilot in the business working alongside Chuck Yeager and training new test pilots like Neil Armstrong who would become famous himself one day. Being the best test pilot of that era undoubtedly qualifies him as one of the best of all times.
Scott is 84 years old now and flew into town [in his own plane of course] to reagale us with stories from the golden age of aircraft design and experimentation. Can you imagine flying an "X-1" at 800 miles per hour with the windshield iced up so badly that you have to have a chase plane guide you down? Scott did it several times, among other things that he also fascinated us with in his hour and a half talk tonight. You can tell that after 70 years of piloting aircraft the man still loves talking about aviation. After he took us back to those aviation glamour days of the late 50's and early 60's he asked if were interested in hearing about his recent experiences while consulting on the anniversary flight of the Wright Brothers aircraft. We were....and so we heard his 45 minute description of this enthralling story. Scott chose the pilot who was to fly the reproduction aircraft at Kitty Hawk in 2003 and taught him how to fly it.
As I told Jack on the way home...."I'm glad you got to see Mr. Crossfield, he's as an important man in the history of aviation as there is". And he is.
PS: The most interesting and amazing thing I learned from Scott was that in all the years of flying the most cutting edge experimental aircraft in the world.....he never was instrument rated. A fact he kept well guarded. He finally had to get "certified" in 1983 when he started flying general aviation aircraft!
 | One of the things I love about living in Midland is the advantage of the city being big enough to draw some pretty interesting people, but small enough to actually meet them when they come. Tonight at the CAF we got to say hel-lo to aviation legend Scott Crossfield. If you know aviation you'll know him. If you saw the movie The Right Stuff, you will remember his name. He and Chuck Yeager were in a friendly competition to see who would be the |
But Scott took every other honor thereafter, being the first man through Mach 2 and then Mach 3. He had more flights in the experimental "X" planes of that era than any other pilot and in fact Scott actually helped design the X-15 and made the first 3 flights in it. Scott was generally accepted as the best test pilot in the business working alongside Chuck Yeager and training new test pilots like Neil Armstrong who would become famous himself one day. Being the best test pilot of that era undoubtedly qualifies him as one of the best of all times.
Scott is 84 years old now and flew into town [in his own plane of course] to reagale us with stories from the golden age of aircraft design and experimentation. Can you imagine flying an "X-1" at 800 miles per hour with the windshield iced up so badly that you have to have a chase plane guide you down? Scott did it several times, among other things that he also fascinated us with in his hour and a half talk tonight. You can tell that after 70 years of piloting aircraft the man still loves talking about aviation. After he took us back to those aviation glamour days of the late 50's and early 60's he asked if were interested in hearing about his recent experiences while consulting on the anniversary flight of the Wright Brothers aircraft. We were....and so we heard his 45 minute description of this enthralling story. Scott chose the pilot who was to fly the reproduction aircraft at Kitty Hawk in 2003 and taught him how to fly it.
As I told Jack on the way home...."I'm glad you got to see Mr. Crossfield, he's as an important man in the history of aviation as there is". And he is.
PS: The most interesting and amazing thing I learned from Scott was that in all the years of flying the most cutting edge experimental aircraft in the world.....he never was instrument rated. A fact he kept well guarded. He finally had to get "certified" in 1983 when he started flying general aviation aircraft!
