Scott Crossfield's C210 missing

[SiuDude]

He was flying from somewhere in AL to HEF (VA) when radar contact was lost about 40 miles north of ATL. Search and rescue is underway.
In case you don't know, he was a supersonic test pilot in the '50s and '60s.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N6579X

 

[fxbat]

There were some pretty wicked storms in that area yesterday, and moderate turb north of the frontal line up to the DC area. Hopefully he is ok.

 

[User546]

In case you don't know, he was a supersonic test pilot in the '50s and '60s.

And probably only one of the greatest test pilots that ever flew.

Here's a quick bio of Crossfield for those not familiar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Scott_Crossfield

Recent photo of Crossfield from the second X-Flight:
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/gallery/X-Prize_2/x15pilotcrossfield
.
.
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[Boris Badenov]

Fingers crossed. Track log looks like he had it slowed way back.

 

[Traumahawk]

I've met Mr Crossfield a couple times at different events, both of which he flew his 210 in for.

Although jokingly rival with Yeager, Scott has some damn good stories and did the type of flying in the high desert that paved the way for reliable operation of both military and commercial jet aircraft today, as did the rest of the guys he flew with.

I hope he just ducked into some podunk field and never bothered to tell ATC about it.

T-Hawk

 

[mar]

Exactly!

I hope he just ducked into some podunk field and never bothered to tell ATC about it.

T-Hawk

I saw him speak in Anchorage a few years ago. Great stories and great sense of humor. Ten times the personality of Yeager (old goat).

More fingers crossed here.

 

[Bob_Sacamano]

Sad News

RANGER, Ga. (AP) -- Crews searching for a missing airplane registered to legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield found the wreckage of a small plane with a body inside Thursday, but they didn't immediately identify the victim.
Searchers found the wreckage shortly after 1 p.m. in the mountains near Ranger, Ga., about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, a Civil Air Patrol spokeswoman said.
Search teams had combed the forests of northern Georgia looking for the plane registered to Crossfield, the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound.
Officials did not immediately know who was flying the single-engine plane or whether Crossfield was aboard when it left Alabama for Virginia on Wednesday morning.

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The plane was last spotted on radar later that day over Georgia, north of Atlanta, the Civil Air Patrol's Georgia Wing said. The Civil Air Patrol scheduled an afternoon news conference Thursday in the northern Georgia town of Ranger to discuss the search.
A man who answered the phone at Crossfield's home in Herndon, Va., declined to say whether Crossfield was missing.
Crossfield, now 84, was 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. 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 2.97in 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, N.C. He trained four pilots for the Dec. 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.
The missing plane left Prattville, Ala., around 9 a.m. Wednesday en route to Manassas, Va. Search crews from the Civil Air Patrol were conducting an air and ground search along the flight path, focusing on a hilly, forested region of north-central Georgia.

 

[User546]

CNN is now reporting that the family has verified the body in the wreckage was Scott's.

Onward and Upward to a legendary individual.... RIP Mr. Crossfield

 

[$$$4nothin]

May you rest in peace knowing you are one of my hero's. One of the men that made aviation history. I hope the Air Force names a street after him, like they did so many other legends that gave there lives in the furtherment of aviation out at Edwards. Good Bye my friend.

 

[AirBadger]

Very sad day. RIP.