He's The Guest Speaker At EAA's Wright Brothers Memorial Dinner December 17

Scott Crossfield, whose long list of aviation accomplishments includes being the first man to fly faster than twice the speed of sound, will be the guest speaker at EAA's annual Wright Brothers Memorial Dinner on Saturday, Dec. 17, at the EAA Aviation Center in Oshkosh.

The dinner, held on the anniversary of the Wright brothers' historic first flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C., celebrates the progress of flight over the past 102 years. The event began in 2003 to commemorate the centennial of powered flight and has attracted such aviation notables as civilian spacecraft commander Mike Melvill and record-setting pilot/military veteran Dick Rutan.

"Scott Crossfield has few peers in the world of aviation achievement," said Tom Poberezny, EAA President. "We are very pleased that he will join us at EAA on Dec. 17, the day the world's attention turns to powered flight and how it has advanced civilization in little more than a century."

Crossfield (EAA #430120) made aviation history on Nov. 20, 1953, when he became the first person to reach Mach 2, piloting the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket research aircraft to more than 1,320 mph. After five years at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., as a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Crossfield left to work for North American Aviation, contractor for the X-15 Rocket Plane. As a design consultant and test pilot, he helped guide the development of the X-15 and flew its maiden flights in 1959. He flew the X-15 a total of 14 times, to a maximum altitude of more than 88,000 feet and a maximum speed of Mach 2.97 (1,960 mph).

Later in his career, Crossfield worked as an executive at Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation, and served as technical consultant to the US House Committee on Science and Technology on matters relating to civil aviation. His aviation awards include the Clifford B. Harmon Trophy (1960), the Collier Trophy (1961), and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (1993) for half a century of service to aviation and aeronautics.

In 2002-2003, Crossfield served as technical adviser for EAA's Countdown to Kitty Hawk project, which successfully built and flew an exact reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer, as well as several of the Wright brothers' earlier gliders. That project culminated with the airplane's presence at the national centennial of flight celebration at Kitty Hawk in December 2003.

Crossfield has also been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1983), the International Space Hall of Fame (1988), and the Aerospace Walk of Honor (1990). Crossfield's autobiography, Always Another Dawn: The Story of a Rocket Test Pilot, was published in 1960.

FMI: www.airventuremuseum.org