Crossfield: Learning to fly 'the Wright way'
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Saturday, October
4, 2003.
By ALLISON GATLIN
Valley Press Staff Writer
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EDWARDS AFB - Nearly 50 years ago, Scott Crossfield made aviation history
when he became the first man to reach Mach 2, piloting the Douglas D-558-II
Skyrocket through the skies over Edwards Air Force Base.
The historic flight on Nov. 20, 1953 helped mark the 50th anniversary
of the Wright Brother's first flight and the beginning of modern aviation.
Today, Crossfield continues to honor that heritage as part of the team marking the Centennial of Flight with a reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer and its first flight.
"He is a true icon of the aerospace industry," said Bob Meyer, deputy director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. "He's more than a test pilot, he's an engineering test pilot."
Crossfield returned to the scene of his historic flight Friday to speak before an attentive audience at the center about his journey from Mach 2 to Kitty Hawk.
"It was a different world after Mach 2," he said.
Flight test was a simpler process in those early days of high-speed research, without modern computers or simulators.
"(Flight research) relied heavily on professional judgment, which proved to be pretty darn good," Crossfield said.
"It was really a hey-day of a good time, almost like a picnic," he said. "Everyday we were doing something. We weren't really sure where we were going, but we were going new and innovative places."
"Howard Hughes couldn't buy this kind of flight time and we got paid for it," he said. He received the handsome sum of $500 a month.
The D-558-II was part of a joint program with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) - the precursor of today's NASA - the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps and Douglas Aircraft Co. Crossfield flew the aircraft as a NACA pilot.
The swept-wing, rocket-propelled aircraft was carried aloft beneath the belly of a B-29 bomber for launch.
"Air launch was a very neat way to start flying compared to the noise and commotion and pounding of a conventional takeoff from the ground," he said.
More than a year of preparation went into the Mach 2 flight, making adjustments and refinements to the D-558-II "to help that old 1.5 Mach airplane make it to Mach 2." It had made it as far as Mach 1.88 before.
Nov. 2, 1953 was cold and windy, as the ground crew began prepping the aircraft at 3 a.m. Crossfield himself was battling a bad case of the flu, "but there was no way I was going to stop now and let down my crew, my NACA, my Navy and, yes, my country," he said.
The D-558-II, with Crossfield at the controls, was dropped from the B-29 at 32,000 feet altitude, climbed another 40,000 feet and pushed over into a slight dive to make the run to Mach 2.
The rocket engine ran about 10 seconds longer than usual, and the machmeter passed Mach 2 "by a half a needlewidth."
"Very few people, not in the Air Force, thought we would ever get Mach 2 out of Old Faithful," Crossfield said.
Operating at the same time, the X-planes drew most of the media's attention, although the D-558-II had a greater impact on the modern fleet, Crossfield said.
"The airplane became the queen of the skies," he said. "She was a beautiful lady."
Crossfield's test pilot exploits at what later became NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center include the X-1, X-4, X-5, XF-92A and X-15.
Still spry at 82 years old, Crossfield hasn't left the world of flight test, although the work is far from the high-speed world of the D-558-II or the X-15.
Crossfield now is director of flight operations for the Wright Experience, an endeavor to reproduce the Wright Brothers' 1903 achievement. He has trained and selected the pilots who will take the reproduction 1903 Wright Flyer through a recreation of the first powered human flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. on Dec. 17, 2003.
So far, the pilots have been learning how to fly the unconventional aircraft using a reproduction of the Wright's 1902 glider. Towed behind a SUV, the glider is lifted a few feet above the ground, giving the pilots opportunity to attempt control of the unstable aircraft.
The pilots must "unlearn what they know, and relearn how to fly the Wright way," he said.
Crossfield himself has taken the controls of the glider about a dozen times, a task more difficult than his other research flights, and including at least one tumble to the grass below.
"This is a miserable contraption to fly," he said.
More often, his duty during the training flights is to hold onto the tow rope used to pull the unpowered glider behind the SUV.
The training flights with the glider have taught the pilots how to at least marginally handle the unstable aircraft, in a configuration that mimics that of the powered flyer.
Training with the 1903 Flyer will begin in the next few weeks, in preparation for the Dec. 17 recreation.
Despite concerns of others that the craft will be unable to fly at all, Crossfield remains doggedly sure of success.
"We're going to fly," he said. "I'm going to fly that flyer if it's the last thing I do."
As for the future of flight research, Crossfield feels that the focus should be on air-breathing propulsion systems capable of launching aircraft into orbit. This would mean cheaper and easier access to the space station, which he sees as vital.
That technology could then be used to create a Mach 5 transport, capable
of flying from New York to Beijing in two hours.
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