[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 48 (Thursday, April 27, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E644-E645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IN MEMORY OF AVIATION PIONEER A. SCOTT CROSSFIELD

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BART GORDON

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 27, 2006

  Mr. GORDON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a most 
distinguished individual--Scott Crossfield. Scott was an authentic 
American hero--though he would decline the applause--who served the 
Nation with distinction as a premier test pilot. With characteristic 
courage and enthusiasm, he carried out numerous pioneering test flights 
during his career--flights that significantly advanced the field of 
aeronautics.
  It is rare for someone as famous and expert in his field to come to 
Congress as a professional staff member, but Scott proved to be an 
invaluable resource as well as a tireless advocate for aeronautics 
research and development during his years of service to the House 
Science Committee in the 1980s and early 1990s.
  Scott came to the Committee after a wide-ranging career as a Navy 
pilot during World War II; an aerodynamicist, project engineer, and 
research test pilot at NACA, the National Advisory Committee for 
Aeronautics (NASA's predecessor agency); as chief engineering test 
pilot and director of testing and quality assurance for North American 
Aviation, one of the main contractors on the Apollo program; as a vice 
president for research and development of Eastern Airlines; and as 
senior vice president of Hawker Siddley Aviation.
  Author Tom Wolfe sought to capture the spirit of a test pilot in The 
Right Stuff, his compelling look at the men who flew at Edwards Air 
Force Base and the Mercury Seven astronauts. It was a difficult task, 
because among men like Crossfield ``[t]his quality, this it, was never 
named, however, nor was it talked about in any way.'' In 1960, Scott's 
peers in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots recognized his 
incomparability with their highest honor--the Ivan C. Kincheloe Award--
for ``Outstanding Development and Flight Testing of the X-15''. The X-
15 is one of three aircraft in the National Air and Space Museum that 
embody Scott's influence. The Museum honored him with a Lifetime 
Achievement Award in 2000.
  Scott is known to the public for flying his Douglas D-558-II 
Skyrocket at Mach 2--twice as fast as sound--on November 20, 1953. 
Equally vital was his knowledge of aeronautics and his practical 
experience in the design, development, manufacture and operation of 
aircraft, allowing him to describe the events during flight in the 
language of his fellow engineers. Interviewed by Aviation Week & Space 
Technology for a 1988 documentary, Scott identified himself as an 
``aeronautical engineer, an aerodynamicist, and a designer. My flying 
was only primarily because I felt that it was essential to designing 
and building better airplanes for pilots to fly. . . . The opportunity 
to be a test pilot . . . is there for all--and probably within the 
grasp of most. In my mind, we should divest ourselves of this idea of 
special people (being) heroes, if you please, because really they do 
not exist.''
  Wolfe wrote of the Brotherhood of the Right Stuff, ``. . . [T]he idea 
here (in the all-enclosing fraternity) seemed to be a man should have 
the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide 
on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the 
coolness, to pull it back in the last yawning moment--and then to go up 
again the next day, and the next day, and every next day, even if the 
series should prove infinite.'' During his career Scott confronted 
numerous emergencies: engine flameouts, aircraft control failures, an 
X-15 landing which broke the

[[Page E645]]

plane in two--and the day in June 1960 when a ground test of the X-15's 
rocket engine ended in an explosion that threw the cockpit twenty feet 
at a speed that exposed Scott to 50 times the force of gravity.
  Scott wrote in his book, Always Another Dawn, ``all I could think of 
was the possibility of a second explosion that might hurl my part of 
the airplane halfway across Edwards and through the main hangar and 
workshop. In the cockpit I moved swiftly to do what I could to prevent 
this. . . . Immediately afterwards, . . . we recalled in detail all 
that we could remember while it was still fresh in our minds. These 
eye-witness accounts, added to the miles of telemetry data and the film 
strips from the three movie cameras, would enable us to establish the 
cause of the explosion very quickly.'' Such dedication was critical to 
correcting failures, improving performance and accomplishing the major 
goal of NACA, which was to infuse the leading edge of aeronautical 
technology into American industry and aircraft.
  The Committee on Science and Technology was fortunate, when it came 
time to recruit Scott, to have Jack Swigert, the pilot of Apollo 13, as 
its chief of staff. Scott and Jack had known each other for years and 
it was Scott who talked Jack into leaving graduate school at the 
University of Colorado for the astronaut corps.
  Scott answered the call to public service and brought his unique 
abilities and contacts to a decade and a half of distinguished service 
on the Committee. When he joined the staff he had already been a pilot 
for over 40 years. During his years of service, Scott was the 
Committee's lead staffer both for the Federal Aviation Administration 
and for the aeronautics portion of NASA. The universally high level of 
respect he garnered opened doors no one else could open. His unique 
experience and level of knowledge meant that he was on top of both the 
technology and the politics of the agencies he oversaw.
  In the wake of the Challenger disaster, Scott applied himself to an 
analysis of the Shuttle orbiter's braking system as his part of the 
Committee's investigation. He wrote that, 
`` . . . Orbiter landings appear high risk even under ideal conditions, 
which seldom occur. Exceptional procedural and skill demands are placed 
upon the pilots to nurse the brakes and tires through every landing. 
Landing rules have had increasing constraints imposed that hamper 
operational flexibility and usefulness of the Orbiter . . . [I]t is a 
tribute to the pilots that they were able to carry such a tender system 
so far.'' When the Shuttle returned to flight in 1988, it did so with a 
stronger braking system. The astronauts can thank Scott Crossfield 
every time their drag chute deploys as the Shuttle rolls down the 
runway. The Committee, upon his departure in 1993, expressed 
``[a]ppreciation for [his] knowledge and experience in aviation and 
engineering, contributions to sound aviation policies, and foresight to 
set in motion plans for 21st Century aerospace transportation.'' NASA 
awarded him the Distinguished Public Service Medal and the Federal 
Aviation Administration a Certificate of Appreciation.

  In 2003, Scott applied his experience at teaching pilots to a 
singular purpose. The team chosen to attempt a recreation of Wilbur and 
Orville Wright's first flight at Kitty Hawk asked Scott to train the 
pilots attempting to get the replica Flyer into the air. The Wrights 
didn't leave an instruction manual for the Flyer, and as Scott told the 
Experimental Aircraft Association's Sport Aviation magazine, ``[t]hings 
you would do intuitively as a pilot in any other airplane just don't 
work with this one.'' Aviation Week magazine recognized his 
contribution by including Scott as Laureate for Aeronautics/Propulsion 
in 2003.
  Scott always had time to fly his plane around the country to share 
his experiences and love of aviation. He loved speaking to young 
people--especially in the Fairfax County elementary school near his 
home that is named after him. That honor probably meant as much to him 
as receiving the National Aeronautics Association Collier Trophy from 
President Kennedy, the National Space Club's Wernher von Braun Trophy 
or his enshrinement in the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame, the National 
Aviation Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame.
  Scott was one of a kind and all who worked with him were blessed to 
have the opportunity to do so. I want to express my condolences to his 
family on the sad loss of this amazing man.

                          ____________________