Crossfield, Scott

Crossfield, Scott (Albert Scott Crossfield), 1921–2006, American aviator, b. Berkeley, Calif. A fighter pilot and flight instructor in the navy (1942–46) during World War II, he studied aeronautical engineering at the Univ. of Washington (B.S. 1949, M.S. 1950) and became a rocketplane test pilot with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1950–55) and North American Aviation (1955–61). He was the first to fly at Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound), in the D-558-II (1953); and the first to pilot the X-15 (1959), surviving two disasters involving the latter. Crossfield held engineering and research positions with North American Aviation (1961–67) and was a vice president of Eastern Airlines (1967–74).

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Crossfield, (Albert) Scott (1921–  ) aeronautical engineer; born in Berkeley, Calif. He served in the United States Navy as a pilot during World War II. While working at North American Aviation as a test pilot and engineer (1955–67), he flew the X-15 rocket airplane and directed the Apollo, Saturn S-II, Hound Dog, and Paraglider projects.