for those old enough to remember him

[wreckwriter]

Test pilot Scott Crossfield, pilot of the X-15 rocket plane and first man to break Mach II, was killed in a plane crash yesterday.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/20/geo...ane/index.html

[Ken Massingale]

Dang, went down still flying at 84. I'm sure that's the way he would have wanted it.
And yes, I remember that man flying the X-15 all too well.
ken

[Ken Weaver]

Oh yeah - A real hero, with the right stuff!

[wreckwriter]

When I was a kid this guy, and others like him, used to make the news constantly with their latest exploits. When was the last time you heard anything about a pilot other than Steve Fossett? How many astronauts can the average kid name today? We knew them all....

I think its sad that guys like this have been replaced as heros by morons who sing dirty songs.

[LarryG]

I remember him, too. As a teenager I was heavily into aviation (CAP cadet, etc) and knew the names of a lot of these guys. I grew up near Dayton, OH, and went to the Air Force Museum often. They'd get the "second string" planes that the Smithsonian didn't want/need. Some cool stuff, flown by some remarkable men.

[bpb]

He was one of my heroes too. I got to meet him last year at Oshkosh. He had some great stories; I could have listened to him talk for weeks.

RIP

[wreckwriter]

I'd like to post this as a tribute to Scott and all the rest who have passed in this fashion. I'm sure many of you have seen it, or a variation, before but it still fits, every time.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

[9johnny5]

our era is coming to a close.....

My heroes were the Mercury 7 / Gemini / Apollo astronauts, as well as "the man" Chuck Yeager. Talk about strapping your butt to a rocket with fins and blasting off, not knowing for sure if you were even coming back, not expecting to reach a place in human history.

A lot of things in life were better back then, most especially the society that even allows creatures like Paris Hilton and Nick/Jessica enough notoriety to pervade our consciousness was only in the finest Philip K. Dick stories. /rant off.

could just be me.

where are you Alan B. Shepard?

[JR]

Coincidentally, I got an email from my FIL today, lamenting the loss of his friend Scott. Apparently they worked together closely on the X-15 project. He also mentioned something about Scott achieving Mach speeds in his Corvette!

Interestingly, my FIL also said something like "he was old, so it's ok."

I don't think these are the idle ruminations of an old man, either. My FIL supplied parts to virtually every SkunkWorks project and many other production military projects. He's sort of a nerdy guy, with loads of pics of himself at Ed's AFB (as LOML calls it), crawling in one cockpit or another. A very interesting cat.

JR

[Pappy]

I remember the flights of the X-15, but couldn't have told yo the piloit's name. To live a full life and die doing what you love most, although still a tragedy, is almost poetic.

One man I admired was Elmer Trett. He was a pioneer in top fuel motorcycles and set the qtr mile record on 2 wheels at 6.069 seconds / 235.10 MPH in August 96. Two weeks later on Labor Day, during an exibition run at the NHRA US Nationals, he had a heart attack and was blown off the bike near the finish line at over 230 MPH. The record set by Elmer and that bike held for almost 5 years!

[wreckwriter]

I remember Elmer as well. Motorcycle drag racing was great fun in my younger years.

[L. D. Jeffries]

As a retired AF air traffic controller I had the pleasure of working with Scott (via the radio) many a time when I was stationed at Edwards AFB. GREAT pilot , polite, friendly guy. Died doing what he loved and knew best! All avaition nuts will miss him much.