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April 21, 2006
Another one with the Right Stuff is gone
Scott Crossfield, the test-pilot who followed Chuck Yeager into the upper reaches of the atmosphere as the fastest man alive, died yesterday while flying his plane in a storm, still using stick and rudder at the age of 84.
Aviation Week conducted an interview with Crossfield back in the '80s; here's a few excerpts.
"The research airplane program was probably the most successful government research program on record. It involved about 30 airplanes for 30 years, running from 1945 to 1975, and probably produced almost all of the information that has been essential to our transonic and supersonic flights, our transonic transports, and our space program.
"The X-1 was the first of the research airplane series -- post-war research series. Its primary purpose -- or its sole purpose -- was to see if we could, in fact, exceed the speed of sound with a manned aircraft. There were a lot of people who said that we could not. And a lot of reputable opinions that said that we could.
"It was very simply designed. It was an airplane that incidentally was patented by Bob Wood in 1945. It used an RMILL4 engine which was the beginning of our successful rocket era (and was) developed by the Navy and Bob Truax. The all-point simplicity and design -- and the objectivity and design -- made it very successful. It did accomplish its end of flying supersonically in 1947, of course, (we all know) with Captain Charlie Yeager at the controls."
[...]
"When they were designing the X-1, we did not have the capability to do wind tunnel testing transonically. So they made a very good ... decision. They made the forebody of the X-1 shaped like a 50 caliber bullet which was a well-known supersonic projector at the time.
"It was (that kind of) judgmental design characteristic that was essential at that time; but we had no way to test (it). And that is the sole reason for the research airplane program. We had the capabilities with engines to speeds and altitudes; (but) we had no capability to test. We did not know how to analyze, so flight test was the only way."
[...]
"Well, as I remember the genesis of the X-15, one time coming home from a fishing trip with Walt Williams (who was my boss at NACA) ... We heard on the radio that a 75,000 pound thrust Viking rocket engine was successfully fired at Santa Suzanna. Of course nothing would do but I got a piece of paper out of his glove compartment and we decided what we could do to man a plane with a 75,000 thrust rocket. That became the X-15. We gave that idea to Hilbert Drake who developed it in 1955. In that year the X-15 went under contract."
[...]
"[T]he checkout in the X-15 was rather abrupt in that, on our first flight, we flew it as a glider alone. That gave me three minutes and fifty-eight seconds to learn how to fly the airplane and bring it in for a landing.
"On the approach and landing, I had a control problem that really turned out to have a very simple solution. But the airplane, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be unstable and pitched to me, which meant that it was very difficult to control it. The pitching oscillations got very high and I had to figure out a way to get the airplane on the ground at the bottom of the pitching oscillation so that it would not wrap up in a ball of metal.
"As it turned out, I succeeded. However, I landed at 140 knots instead of my anticipated 174 knots."
[...]
Q. I would like for you to describe what happened with the ground test on the first XLR99engine. When that engine exploded, two questions ... Why were you in the cockpit? That relates to controlling with the first thrustable rocket engine. And secondly, what happened to you in that explosion?
"When we installed the large engine on the X-15, (because of) our flight test plan we were going to demonstrate that the engine could be started. It could be throttled from 50 to 100 percent as designed on the first flight. The way that we were flying, I was limited to the speeds that I could allow the airplane to get so it took a very precise engine-on-off and thrust program to stay within that flight plan. To make sure that all of the systems would respond to this plan we made the last test of the engine on the airplane on the ground.
"This is kind of humorous because the pilot gets into the airplane to run the engine. Everybody else gets into the block house. That is called 'developing the confidence of the aviator.' In doing that run, we had a propulsion system failure that was borne of something unique to the ground run that caused the airplane to blow up. About 1,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 1,200 gallons of (word deleted) and 800 pounds of 98% hydrogen peroxide got together and did their chemical thing.
"It was a pretty violent activity for a moment or two. It was like being inside the sun. It was such a fire outside that it was a very brilliant orange. The fore part of the airplane, which was all that was left, was blown about 30 feet forward -- and I was in it. Of course I was pretty safe because I was in a structure that was designed to resist very high temperatures of reentry flight."
Crossfield said he was bothered that the Air Force wouldn't count the time he was airborne following the explosion toward his total logged hours in the cockpit.
Although Crossfield -- like the rest of the test pilots -- snickered at the idea that they were heroes, to kids like me in the '60s, the Crossfields, the Yeagers, they were everything we thought heroes should be.
Rest in peace.
Posted by Mike Lief at April 21, 2006 07:30 AM
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Comments
Once again I take issue with OOAL's glowing praise heaped upon men of war by referring to them as heros. Hey, I'm not putting these guys down outright. My perspective is this - guys go into the military to fly jets and shoot to the stars in rockets for reasons that are much less than idealistic. They are guys. Although one of your readers challenged my maleness recently, I can tell you that I have also done some wild things because I just wanted a thrill. The greatest month of my life was spent backpacking through Montana's wilderness with 2 Earth First friends. I didn't do it for "the cause," I did it because it was really fun. I swam in pristine waters, had an encounter with one BIG bear and stood my ground until it just sniffed and walked away, and slept under the stars. I did this because I was just a guy with two other guys looking for fun and adventure. That's the flat out fact. Although the adventure is different, its the same reason behind why guys become test pilots, drive fast motorcyles across country, cliff dive, and just do a million other nutty things that guys do.
If you want a real hero, look at someone like Martin Luther King. His dream was a dream of war and kicking ass all over the planet like OOAL's, his dream was to bring peace to the world. Now that is a real hero OOAL.
Posted by: Sbarro at April 22, 2006 11:50 AM
Sbarro:
I have big news for you: Kicking ass all over this planet is exactly what bought you the right to say your piece here, or anywhere else you choose. So, thank you very much for sharing your Brokeback vacation with us, but please grow up and realize that a little ass kickin' is what made this country what it is - the greatest place to live. It's also what gave you the ability to go in to the mountains backpacking and enjoying our purple mountains majesty without worrying that you would be killed just for walking in the wrong place.
Gotta run - the shotgun needs a good cleaning.
Posted by: Thin Ice at April 24, 2006 08:51 PM
Would Sbarro be willing to trade his pearl necklace for a PETN one?
Posted by: LT at April 26, 2006 04:18 PM