He's The Guest Speaker At EAA's Wright Brothers Memorial Dinner
December 17
Scott Crossfield, whose long list of aviation accomplishments
includes being the first man to fly faster than twice the speed of
sound, will be the guest speaker at EAA's annual Wright Brothers
Memorial Dinner on Saturday, Dec. 17, at the EAA Aviation Center in
Oshkosh.
The dinner, held on the anniversary of the Wright brothers'
historic first flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C., celebrates the progress
of flight over the past 102 years. The event began in 2003 to
commemorate the centennial of powered flight and has attracted such
aviation notables as civilian spacecraft commander Mike Melvill and
record-setting pilot/military veteran Dick Rutan.
"Scott Crossfield has few peers in the world of aviation
achievement," said Tom Poberezny, EAA President. "We are very
pleased that he will join us at EAA on Dec. 17, the day the world's
attention turns to powered flight and how it has advanced
civilization in little more than a century."
Crossfield (EAA #430120) made aviation history on Nov. 20, 1953,
when he became the first person to reach Mach 2, piloting the
Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket research aircraft to more than 1,320
mph. After five years at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., as a test
pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,
Crossfield left to work for North American Aviation, contractor for
the X-15 Rocket Plane. As a design consultant and test pilot, he
helped guide the development of the X-15 and flew its maiden
flights in 1959. He flew the X-15 a total of 14 times, to a maximum
altitude of more than 88,000 feet and a maximum speed of Mach 2.97
(1,960 mph).
Later in his career, Crossfield worked as an executive at
Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation, and served as
technical consultant to the US House Committee on Science and
Technology on matters relating to civil aviation. His aviation
awards include the Clifford B. Harmon Trophy (1960), the Collier
Trophy (1961), and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
(1993) for half a century of service to aviation and
aeronautics.
In 2002-2003, Crossfield served as technical adviser for EAA's
Countdown to Kitty Hawk project, which successfully built and flew
an exact reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer, as well as several
of the Wright brothers' earlier gliders. That project culminated
with the airplane's presence at the national centennial of flight
celebration at Kitty Hawk in December 2003.
Crossfield has also been inducted into the National Aviation
Hall of Fame (1983), the International Space Hall of Fame (1988),
and the Aerospace Walk of Honor (1990). Crossfield's autobiography,
Always Another Dawn: The Story of a Rocket Test Pilot, was
published in 1960.
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