Mon, Oct 10, 2005
Two Test Pilots Talk About Their Flights And Their
Aircraft
It has been just over one year since the privately-funded
SpaceShipOne flew into space, twice within five days, to claim the
Ansari X-Prize. With that in mind, we felt it would be an
appropriate time to revisit one of our inaugural Aero-Cast
features: our coverage of a presentation from this year's
AirVenture 2005, featuring former X-15 pilot Scott Crossfield --
the first man to fly a winged vehicle into suborbital space
-- and Mike Melvill, pilot of SpaceShipOne's first flight into
space, as well as the first of the two X-Prize-winning flights.
Once the crowd's applause died down (and after some technical
glitches were worked out), the two men gave a spirited talk to the
packed audience gathered at the Theater In The Woods. Both men
captivated the crowd with their tales and observations of their
experiences, with Melvill discussing his flight into space aboard
SpaceShipOne last year and Crossfield giving insight into what it
felt like to pilot the rocket-powered X-15 in test flights over 40
years before.
Melvill had the mike (bad pun) for most of the presentation, but
Crossfield easily provided the best one liners. Here's an example:
When Mike asks Scott if he ever felt nervous while piloting the
X-15, Crossfield replies "I wasn't doing any psychological or
emotional evaluations... I was busy flying an airplane! I don't
know what you were doing..."
Listen To Mike Melvill And Scott
Crossfield At Oshkosh
To listen, just click on the link above to download the
Aero-Cast to your iPod, or similar audio device. Don't have an
iPod? Well, you can then download any of our Aero-Casts right to
your computer, and listen to them at your convenience!
Aero-News Aero-Casts: If it's IN the air (or space), we have it
ON the air!
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