A. Scott Crossfield was bornOctober 2, 1921, in Berkeley, Calif. He took his first flight at age six in anoil company airplane, a flight that hooked him on aviation for life. DuringWorld War II he was a fighter pilot and fighter gunnery instructor in the U.S.Navy. In 1950, he joined NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee forAeronautics (NACA), and was a research pilot for the next five years at the HighSpeed Flight Research Station at Edwards, Calif. There he was the test pilot fornumerous research aircraft, including the X-1, X-4, X-5, XF-92, the D-558-I,D-558-II, and on November 20, 1953 he became the first pilot to fly faster thanMach 2. He was also the first pilot to fly the X-15 and in 1960 became the firstman to fly that aircraft (unofficially) at Mach 3.
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