HERNDON -- Famed test pilot A. Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly twice the speed of sound, died when his small plane crashed en route to his home in Virginia.

Family members and authorities confirmed the 84-year-old aviation pioneer's death yesterday, a day after Crossfield's Cessna was reported missing after dropping from radar about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday over a mountainous section of Georgia.

The cause of the crash was under investigation. Crossfield was believed to be the only person aboard.

Crossfield, who set the Mach 2 mark in 1953, also was the first pilot of the X-15, becoming in 1960 the first person to fly an airplane to the edge of space.

He was among aeronautical pioneers whose steady push to design airplanes fast enough to take man to space were undercut when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, marking the start of the American-Soviet race to the moon.

Accident report

Pilot: Scott Crossfield Time: 11:15 a.m. Wednesday Location: 3.3 miles northwest of Ludville, Ga. Weather: Radar showed thunderstorms in the area Route of flight: Prattville, Ala., to Manassas Aircraft: Cessna 210A Investigators: NTSB, FAA, and the aircraft and engine manufacuturers. Source: FAA, NTSB

Crossfield and the eventual "Mercury Seven" astronauts were the subjects of Richmond native Tom Wolfe's novel, "The Right Stuff" and a 1983 movie bearing the same name.

"If it hadn't been for Sputnik, Crossfield could have very easily been remembered instead of Neil Armstrong or John Glenn," Wolfe said yesterday in a telephone interview from his home in New York. "You didn't top Crossfield when it came to flying rocket airplanes."

Crossfield's body was found in the wreckage yesterday about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, where thunderstorms had been active at the time of the crash.

Relatives gathered at Crossfield's two-story home in Herndon upon learning of the missing plane.

"He was doing what he loved, flying. We should all hope for as much," Ed Fleming, a son-in-law, said outside the home. A jet flew low overhead, likely bound for nearby Washington Dulles International Airport.

 

Just across from the neighborhood, at A. Scott Crossfield Elementary School, principal Jerry Kovalcik remembered the school's namesake as a generous neighbor who often attended school music productions and other events, including an annual day set aside in Crossfield's honor.

High flight Test pilot and engineer Scott Crossfield's accomplishments:

First person to fly at twice the speed of sound, more than 1,320 mph, piloting the D-558-II Skyrocket, 1953 First person to fly the revolutionary X-15 rocket plane, which he helped design, 1959 The Harmon Trophy as the world's outstanding aviator, 1960 The Collier Trophy "for invaluable technological contributions to the advancement of flight, and for great skill and courage as test pilot" of the X-15, 1966 Honorary doctor of science degree from the Florida Institute of Technology, 1982 National Aviation Hall of Fame, 1983 NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal for contributions to aeronautics and aviation, 1993 International Space Hall of Fame, 1988 Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame, 1998

Crossfield would sign students' T-shirts and talk about the importance of education, science in particular.

Two autographed prints of the supersonic aircraft he flew hang in the school's lobby.

On one, Crossfield wrote to students, "High performance is always a thing of beauty." On the other, he penned, "There is so much left for you to do! I envy you."

Kovalcik's eyes watered as he remembered Crossfield stopping by just last week to schedule his annual honorary day for early next month. Kovalcik asked how he was doing. As usual, Crossfield replied to the effect, "I might need a little maintenance."

Crossfield kept his 1961 Cessna at a private hangar at Manassas Regional Airport, where, Kovalcik said, he maintained it himself and took it out for at least one weekly flight, often over the Blue Ridge mountains.

"He told me some people were questioning his ability to fly lately," he said. "He said he would know when it's time."

 

Neighbors recalled Crossfield as an avid vegetable gardener, who just this week was on his hands and knees doing spring preparations.

Jayne Toering, 40, said she frequently saw him driving the neighborhood's gravel roads in his golf cart. She remembered him telling her several years ago that he had continued to fly.

"I remember thinking, 'Oh, my gosh! You go, boy!'" she said. "This earth is a lesser place without him."

She and others remembered Crossfield as a direct, genuine man. She recalled he occasionally groused about fellow test pilot Chuck Yeager, who broke Crossfield's Mach 2 record soon after Crossfield set it.

"There was still a grudge there," she said.

 In 1960, while piloting the X-15, Crossfield unofficially became the first person to attain Mach 3.

Physically, pilots can continue to fly as long as they meet FAA medical standards. Crossfield held a current aviation medical certificate, which for private flying has to be renewed every two years.

"I suppose for a guy 84 years of age, who never wanted to stop flying," Wolfe said, "to die flying is not the conceivably worst way to go."