Known for movies

Short Info

DiedApril 19, 2006, Ludville, Georgia, United States
FactDied when the small Cessna plane he was piloting crashed during a storm.


Albert Scott Crossfield was born on October 2, 1921, in Berkeley, California. His parents were both teachers. He had two brothers and one sister. He attended Berkeley High School, where he was an excellent student and athlete. He played football and baseball, and was captain of the track team. After high school, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied engineering. He graduated with honors in 1943.

Crossfield began his career as a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA. He made his first solo flight in a rocket-powered airplane in 1949. He also worked as a test pilot for North American Aviation, where he helped develop the X-15 rocket plane. In 1953, he set a world speed record of 1,600 miles per hour (2,575 kilometers per hour) in the X-15.

In 1955, Crossfield became the first person to fly twice the speed of sound. He also made the first landing of an airplane on an aircraft carrier. In 1962, he flew the X-15A-2 to an altitude of 314,687 feet (96,069 meters), which remains the highest altitude ever reached by an airplane.

Crossfield left North American Aviation in 1966 to become a professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Washington. He retired from teaching in 1985.

Crossfield was married three times and had four children. He died on April 19, 2006, at the age of 84.

Crossfield was one of the most accomplished test pilots of his generation. He made significant contributions to the development of supersonic and hypersonic aircraft. He was also a gifted teacher, who inspired many students to pursue careers in aerospace engineering.

General Info

Full NameAlbert Scott Crossfield
DiedApril 19, 2006, Ludville, Georgia, United States
ProfessionAircraft pilot, Naval Officer
EducationFlorida Institute of Technology, University of Washington
NationalityAmerican

Accomplishments

AwardsCollier Trophy

Social profile links

Facts

#Fact
1Died when the small Cessna plane he was piloting crashed during a storm.
2Inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1988.
3Inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.
4Multiple-award-winning test pilot and aeronautical engineer famous for setting four speed records before becoming the first man to reach Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) in 1953 while flying the D558-II. He is also noted for flying the experimental X-15 rocket airplane in the late 1950s. Crossfield helped to design the fully pressurized suit that served as the prototype of those worn by the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. He was named a vice-president in 1968 of Eastern Airlines. In the 1960s the Crossfields settled in Coral Gables, Florida.

Movies

Self

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Supersonic: Pushing the Envelope2005TV Movie documentary
Wright Brothers: First in Flight2003DocumentaryHimself
Rocket Science2002TV Series documentaryHimself
Test Pilot1989Video documentary
Reaching for the Skies1988TV SeriesHimself
Spaceflight1985TV Series documentaryHimself

Archive Footage

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Star Trek: A Captain's Log1994TV Movie documentaryHimself (as A. Scott Crossfield)

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia

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