Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly more than twice the speed of sound, died when the plane he was piloting crashed in Georgia, some 50 miles north of Atlanta. Scott played important roles in early high-speed jet and rocketplane flight. He may be best remembered for his part in helping develop the X-15 rocketplane and his many flights in that craft to the edge of space.
Godspeed, Scott.
Comment:
There will no doubt be debate over what an 84-year-old man was doing flying - even if he was far from an average man. Whatever the merits of that question, Scott went out doing what he loved.
"Any coward can sit in his home and criticize a pilot for flying into a mountain in a fog. But I would rather, by far, die on a mountainside than in bed. What kind of man would live where there is no daring? And is life so dear that we should blame men for dying in adventure? Is there a better way to die?"
- Charles Lindbergh
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