RANGER, Georgia (AP) -- 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.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I don't know whether it's an apt way for him to die, or a tragedy. Apt, because he died doing what he loved - flying; or, a tragedy because after all the undoubted near-misses he had as a test pilot, that a plane (and a relatively simple one at that) should claim his life.
Interesting response from Yeager. I remember from The Right Stuff and Yeager's own auto-biog that among test pilots there was very much a culture of somehow assuming that test pilots dying was all their own fault - after all, they could hardly keep blaming the planes since they might be called upon to get into the next prototype! So the prevalent attitude always was "*I* won't make that mistake."
Of course, there's always the possibility that, faced with nothing but declining health and the certain, surely-not-far-off loss of his flying ability, he did a John Denver. I hope not though.