Two Test Pilots Talk About Their Flights And Their Aircraft

It has been just over one year since the privately-funded SpaceShipOne flew into space, twice within five days, to claim the Ansari X-Prize. With that in mind, we felt it would be an appropriate time to revisit one of our inaugural Aero-Cast features: our coverage of a presentation from this year's AirVenture 2005, featuring former X-15 pilot Scott Crossfield -- the first man to fly a winged vehicle into suborbital space -- and Mike Melvill, pilot of SpaceShipOne's first flight into space, as well as the first of the two X-Prize-winning flights.

Once the crowd's applause died down (and after some technical glitches were worked out), the two men gave a spirited talk to the packed audience gathered at the Theater In The Woods. Both men captivated the crowd with their tales and observations of their experiences, with Melvill discussing his flight into space aboard SpaceShipOne last year and Crossfield giving insight into what it felt like to pilot the rocket-powered X-15 in test flights over 40 years before.

Melvill had the mike (bad pun) for most of the presentation, but Crossfield easily provided the best one liners. Here's an example: When Mike asks Scott if he ever felt nervous while piloting the X-15, Crossfield replies "I wasn't doing any psychological or emotional evaluations... I was busy flying an airplane! I don't know what you were doing..."

Listen To Mike Melvill And Scott Crossfield At Oshkosh

To listen, just click on the link above to download the Aero-Cast to your iPod, or similar audio device. Don't have an iPod? Well, you can then download any of our Aero-Casts right to your computer, and listen to them at your convenience!

Aero-News Aero-Casts: If it's IN the air (or space), we have it ON the air!

FMI: www.aero-news.net/podcasts