U.S. Pilot May Soon Fly At 4000 m.p.h.
(Rec. 8 p.m.) LOS ANGELES, April 26.
Scott Crossfield, a soft-spoken pilot who looks more like a banker than a space man, may be the first human to fly at 4000 miles an hour.
Crossfield, aged 35, was named yesterday to pilot the rocketpowered X-15, being built by North American Aviation Incorporated, on its maiden flight next year.
He is the man who first flew at twice the speed of sound—--1327 miles an hour in the Douglas Skyrocket in November, 1953 —and he is the man who may fly the X-15 higher and faster than any other manned aircraft. The Defence Department in Washington has said the X-15 may achieve such marks as 4000 miles an hour and 200,000 feet altitudes. “This is my business, my life work,” Crossfield said when asked how he felt about approaching this project. “The X-15 is a flying research laboratory. It is simply an extension of the designs and accomplishments of the X-l, X-2, and X-3 series. “There is no concept that requires a superhuman to fly this aircraft. There is no extreme requirement on the pilot. I will require no ‘training’ as such. I am living with this aircraft, from the concept through the drawing boards, the mock-up, the actual construction, the testing and, finally, the flight. “This thing will not be a piece of cake, of course, but the whole project is developed step by step so that there will be no unknown phenomena.” The X-15 is expected to be dropped from a mother plane ovep Edwards Air Force base, California, as were the X-l and X-2 research planes which ran the records up to better than 2100 miles an hour, and 126,000 feet altitude.
“From the pilot’s standpoint,” Crossfield said, “we are not restricted to your theoretical 4000 miles an hour and 200,000 feet. Mechanically, we can put a pilot
at any altitude and speed we want.
“We are not taking any flyers on anything,” he added. “The estimate of pilot survival is 100 per cent, or realistically, 92 per cent, by the most careful analysis of the most dire possible mishap.” Crossfield was a naval pilot in World War II and has five years’ experience as a test pilot Asked what his wife thought about the X-15 project, Crossfield laughed and said: “I never asked her.”
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Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 13
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394U.S. Pilot May Soon Fly At 4000 m.p.h. Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 13
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