Foundation News and Events
Aug 16th, 2010 by admin
Copy and paste this link to read about how 50 years ago today Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger made his “long, lonely leap” from 102,800 feet….
http://blog.nasm.si.edu/2010/08/16/the-long-lonely-leap/
Col. Kittinger is also a Board Member on the Scott Crossfield Foundation and each year co-presents the A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year Award each July at the National Aviation Hall of Fame’s Enshrinement Weekend.
Aug 16th, 2010 by admin
What is The Aviators?
The Aviators is a new weekly magazine-style TV series featuring interesting people, the latest aircraft, the coolest technology and the best fly-in destinations.
We will take you behind the scenes to show you how airline pilots train, how planes are built, and how ATC works. We will profile aviation businesses and showcase aviation products. We will provide safety tips for private and recreational pilots and career tips for professional pilots.
www.theaviators.tv/TheAviators.TV_-_Home.html
The Aviators is all-things-aviation: “For everyone who has ever gazed skywards.”
Aug 11th, 2010 by admin
The Atlantic Home
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2010
LANE WALLACE – Lane Wallace is an author, pilot and entrepreneur who has written several books for NASA. She won a 2006 Telly Award for her work on the documentary, Breaking the Chain.
A Risk-Averse Nation?
MAY 20 2009, 11:20 AM ET
Back in February, I heard David Sanger, Washington correspondent for the New York Times, speak at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Sanger’s book The Inheritance, a fascinating read about the myriad of daunting challenges facing the new Obama administration, had just come out, and he was discussing some of the thornier issues on that list.
While most of his talk concerned foreign policy issues, Sanger made the comment that one danger facing the U.S. was that “we could become a risk-averse nation. The entire mood of the country has swung from taking wild risks to taking no risk,” he observed. “And that could be bad for the country.” Sanger was talking about the economy–he asked, at one point, what would have happened if Google had had to go before a government committee to get funding for the concept–but his point is relevant beyond the tall towers of Wall Street or the rolling hills of Silicon Valley.
On Monday afternoon, the Atlantis astronauts made their final spacewalk to repair and update the Hubble Telescope. In an earlier post, I talked about the Hubble’s importance … and the questionable importance of human spaceflight going forward, beyond the Hubble missions. But I didn’t get into another whole aspect of the mission–which is the fact that it almost didn’t happen, because in 2004, the then-NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe considered the risks too high.
The Hubble is in an orbit littered with a lot of space debris (we could have another whole discussion on on how that came about), and too low for a damaged Shuttle to reach the International Space Station. Of course, these factors were also true of earlier Hubble missions, but they didn’t figure as prominently into the equation until the shuttle Columbia was destroyed in re-entry because of debris damage sustained earlier in the mission.
To be fair, NASA’s in a bit of a tough place, when it comes to the risks it takes with astronauts, because the failures are so public. The Agency is excoriated publicly, 24 hours a day, for weeks, months, and years. 50,000 people die on our highways every 12 months, and we don’t shut down our highway system. But lose seven astronauts, and you can endanger the entire space program.
And yet, without risk, there is no accomplishment … a fact understood by every single astronaut and test pilot I’ve ever interviewed. Every single one of them has chafed at being held back because of Agency or external concern about the risks involved. “I fully expected to die in one of the planes I was flying,” the famous X-15 test pilot Scott Crossfield once told me. “They were putting this five million dollar escape system into the plane, and I told them I’d fly it sitting on a tomato can if they’d give me the money instead.”
Not every NASA explorer is as colorful as the legendary Crossfield, of course. But Dr. John M. Grunsfeld, who performed the last spacewalk on the Hubble on Monday, has said more than once that he considered the telescope “worth risking my life for.” The pilots, astronauts and shuttle commanders I’ve interviewed all say they know the risks. The astronauts know, as one put it to me, that a Shuttle flight is a one-way ticket, with a chance of a return trip. And they’re okay with that. It’s the rest of us that don’t seem to be.
There needs to be balance, of course. Reckless risk is bad for everyone (see: credit default swaps). NASA managers speak of a balancing act called “risk versus reach.” Too little reach, and you discover nothing significantly new. Too much risk, and you lose the craft and people you need to do the exploring, and you discover nothing at all.
But consider this: not only would Google have trouble convincing a public, risk-averse financial safety board that they were a risk worth taking, but the Wright Brothers would never have left the ground. Aviation itself could never have evolved, if nobody was allowed to be at risk in the course of its development. In his classic memoir Fate is the Hunter, Ernest Gann–one of the early airline pilots, and a brilliant writer–has a section dedicated to colleagues killed in the line of duty, whose “wings are forever folded.” The list, single spaced and double-columned, goes on for several pages. And that’s just working airline pilots, who discovered the hard way the weaknesses in airliners, weather, and navigation systems. There were hundreds, even thousands, of others who gave their lives in the process of the technology’s maturation.
Exploration, innovation, and entrepreneurship are all risky endeavors. If the risks taken are going to bring down an entire financial system for the rest of us, that’s one thing. But if an informed explorer is willing to put their own life, fortune … or even, to quote a memorable document, their sacred honor … on the line for a cause, technology, or chance they think is worth it … perhaps we should rethink our knee-jerk reflex to keep them safer than they wish to keep themselves.
Jul 30th, 2010 by admin
Thunderstorms & ATC:
What You Need To Know.
Join Air Safety Foundation President, Bruce Landsberg
and air traffic controllers, Wednesday, August 4 for this critical real-time safety Webinar.
Register now for the time that is most convenient for you.
I can’t get the links to register to work here so if interested, email Sally Crossfield at Farcross@aol.com and I will forward the registration info to you with active links. Please put Thunderstorm Webinar in the subject line so you don’t get spammed. I’ve attended one of these already and it was not only full of information, but fascinating!
Thunderstorms remain among the deadliest hazards encountered in flight. Over the past ten years, more than 70 percent of the accidents caused by thunderstorm encounters were fatal.
During this dynamic discussion with Bruce Landsberg and air traffic controllers, you’ll discover:
ATC radar limitations
How to make the system work better for you
Essential communications to help you avoid these
deadly encounters.
Don’t miss this real-time Air Safety Foundation Webinar. Register
now. Space is limited. Choose to register for the 3:00pm EDT or 7:00pm EDT Webinar time.
This ASF Webinar qualifies toward the AOPA Accident Forgiveness and FAA WINGS.
For even more valuable thunderstorm information, take the new & improved online course, Weather Wise: Thunderstoms & ATC
AOPA Air Safety Foundation
421 Aviation Way • Frederick, MD 21701-4708 • (800) 872-2672 • www.aopa.org
Jul 30th, 2010 by admin
http://www.esquire.com/features/the-state-of-the-american-man/ESQ1106FLYBOY_160
Jul 30th, 2010 by admin
A test pilot’s final dawn
Scott Crossfield’s passion for aeronautics extended throughout his career
By Peter W. Merlin
April 2006
Distinguished research pilot and engineer Albert S. “Scott” Crossfield died on Apr. 19, 2006 when his small plane crashed near Ranger, Ga., during a flight from Prattville, Ala., to Manassas, Va., near his home. As a research pilot, Crossfield flew numerous jet- and rocket-powered aircraft and became the fist person to fly twice the speed of sound.
Born in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 2, 1921, he took his first flight at age six in a Union Oil Company airplane piloted by Carl Lienesch, a friend of his father. Although Lienesch later claimed young Crossfield, seated in the front cockpit of the wire-and-fabric biplane, fell sound asleep after about 45 minutes the boy was hooked on aviation for life.
At age 12 while working as a delivery boy for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Crossfield started taking flying lessons at a small airport in Wilmington, Calif., trading newspaper delivery, sweeping out hangars and washing airplanes for flight time. He became a self-described “airport bum” and gradually acquired many hours of flying experience.
Crossfield not only wanted to fly airplanes; he also wanted to learn how they worked. As a boy, he designed and built radio-controlled flying models. He began his formal engineering training at the University of Washington in 1940. Over the next three years he graduated from a civilian aviation school, obtained a private pilot’s license, withdrew from the University, worked for Boeing Aircraft Company, quit to join the Army Air Forces, returned briefly to Boeing and finally quit again to join the Navy.
Commissioned an ensign in 1943 following flight training, he served as a fighter and gunnery instructor and maintenance officer before spending six months overseas without seeing combat duty. While in the Navy he flew the F6F and F4U fighters, as well as SNJ trainers, and a variety of other aircraft.
Following the war he resumed his engineering studies under the G.I. bill and joined the naval air reserve unit at Sand Point Naval Air Station, flying fighter aircraft on weekends while attending the University of Washington. During this time he was a member of the navy acrobatic team flying FG-1D Corsairs at airshows around the Pacific Northwest. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1949 and earned his masters in aeronautical science the following year from the same university.
Crossfield joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA–the predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA) at its High Speed Flight Research Station, Edwards, Calif., as a research pilot in June 1950. During the next five years, he flew the X-1, X-4, X-5, XF-92A, F-51D, F-86F, F9F, B-47A, YF-84, F-84F, F-100A, YF-102, D-558-I and D-558-II. During that time he logged 100 rocket flights, making him the single most experienced rocket pilot.
He made aeronautical history on November 20, 1953, when he became the first person to fly at twice the speed of sound in the D-558-II Skyrocket. Taken aloft in the supersonic, swept-wing research aircraft beneath a Boeing P2B-1S (the Navy designation of the B-29) “mother ship”, he dropped clear of the bomber at 32,000 feet and climbed to 72,000 feet before diving to 62,000 feet where he became the first pilot to exceed Mach 2 (more than 1,291 mph). His milestone flight was part of a carefully planned research program with the Skyrocket that featured incremental increases in speed while NACA instrumentation recorded the flight data at each increment.
Crossfield found more than his share of excitement during research flights. During the first air launch of the D-558-2 the airplane suffered engine trouble and the windshield iced over. Crossfield had to land without electrical power or radio communications.
“All I could do was put the sun in one place on that windshield and pray that I was right-side up,” he said in a 1998 interview for the Dryden History Office. He managed to operate the radio with battery power and received landing assistance from a chase pilot.
Crossfield’s first X-1 flight began with an unplanned spin, but he managed to right the airplane and complete the mission successfully. On another X-1 flight the windshield iced up during the landing approach.
“I was blind as a bat,” said Crossfield. He asked his chase pilot for assistance and improvised a way to clear the ice away from the inside surface of the windshield. “I was wearing loafers and I got my shoe off and used one of my socks to wipe a hole in the ice so I could see.” After landing he was unable to exit the cockpit because his foot was frozen to the rudder pedal.
Not all of Crossfield’s flights ended successfully. On Aug. 17, 1953, he was forced to abort takeoff from Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards in the delta-winged XF-92A experimental jet. The airplane failed to stop on the runway and Crossfield managed to steer it onto a dirt road, finally coming to a halt well beyond the edge of the lakebed. The road was subsequently nicknamed “Crossfield Pike.”
In another incident, on Sept. 8, 1954, he made a dead-stick landing in a North American F-100A during its first NACA research flight. After receiving a fire warning signal, Crossfield shut the jet’s engine down and made a gliding approach and landing on the dry lakebed, similar to the type of landings he had performed numerous times in rocket planes. Without power, he coasted across the lakebed and up a concrete ramp to the NACA hangar. Unfortunately, he found the airplane’s brakes now without pressure and could only watch in horror as the aircraft rolled into the hangar (barely missing other research airplanes) and penetrated the building’s southwest wall. This spawned a joke that Chuck Yeager (first pilot to exceed the speed of sound) broke the sonic wall, but Crossfield broke the hangar wall.
On Sept. 1, 1959, NASA crew chief Bob Allen fastened Crossfield into the North American F-107A in preparation for a familiarization flight. He warned Crossfield not to taxi the aircraft too fast, as there was risk of a brake fire. Just before closing the cockpit, Allen told Crossfield, “This is the aircraft that separates the men from the boys.” As Crossfield taxiied across the lakebed, the brakes caught fire, and the aircraft ground looped. It was damaged enough to be retired. Afterward, Allen said to Crossfield, “Now we know.”
Crossfield left the NACA in 1955 to work for North American Aviation on the X-15 rocket-powered research airplane. There, he served as both pilot and design consultant for the revolutionary new aircraft that was carried aloft and launched from beneath the wing of a B-52 for high-speed, high-altitude research missions.
As a result of his extensive rocket plane experience, he was responsible for many of the operational and safety features incorporated into the X-15 and was intimately involved in the design of the vehicle. Crossfield piloted its first free flight in 1959 and subsequently qualified the first two X-15s for flight before North American turned them over to NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Altogether, he completed 16 captive carry (mated to the B-52 launch aircraft), one glide and 13 powered flights in the X-15, reaching a maximum speed of Mach 2.97 (1,960 miles per hour) and a maximum altitude of 88,116 feet.
Although Crossfield was not involved with the maximum speed and altitude X-15 flights, he found the early developmental tests not without risk.
During the fourth flight, on Nov. 5, 1959, an explosion and fire in the engine compartment necessitated an emergency landing on Rosamond Dry Lake near Edwards. During the steep approach Crossfield attempted to jettison the remaining propellants but was unable to complete the task due to the angle of attack. At touchdown the airplane was heavier than normal, resulting in a structural failure behind the cockpit that caused the bottom of the fuselage to drag on the ground.
Crossfield was also involved in tests of the XLR99 engine – at the time the most powerful and most complex man-rated rocket propulsion system. During a ground run on June 8, 1960, a malfunctioning relief valve and pressurizing gas regulator caused a catastrophic explosion. Although the X-15 was blown in half and engulfed in flames, Crossfield emerged unscathed. He later told a reporter the only casualty was the crease in his trousers. “The firemen got them wet when they sprayed the airplane with water,” he explained. “Are you sure it was the firemen?” the reporter asked. Crossfield winced as he pictured the ensuing headline: SPACE SHIP EXPLODES; PILOT WETS PANTS.
In 1960, Crossfield published his autobiography (written with Clay Blair, Jr.), Always Another Dawn: The Story of a Rocket Test Pilot (New York: Arno Press, reprinted 1971) in which he covered his life through the completion of the early X-15 flights.
Following his work with the X-15 Crossfield remained with North American as chief pilot.
“I did the first flights on the T-39 for North American. At that time it was becoming abundantly obvious that aeronautics, as we had known it, were heading for the doldrums,” he told the Dryden History Office. “There was just nothing coming along behind [the X-15]. All of the interest was in space, and that sort of thing.”
Crossfield also served for five years as system director responsible for systems test, reliability engineering, and quality assurance for North American Aviation on the Hound Dog missile, Paraglider, Apollo Command and Service Module, and the Saturn V second stage. Then from 1966 to 1967 he served as technical director for research engineering and test at North American.
Crossfield served as an executive for Eastern Airlines from 1967 to 1973. Then from 1974 to 1975, he was senior vice president for Hawker Siddeley Aviation, setting up its U.S. subsidiary for design, support, and marketing of the HS-146 transport in North America. From 1977 until his retirement in 1993, he served as technical consultant to the House Committee on Science and Technology, advising committee members on matters relating to civil aviation. Upon his retirement in 1993, NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin awarded him the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal for his contributions to aeronautics and aviation over a period spanning half a century.
His many other awards included the International Clifford B. Harmon Trophy for 1960 and the Collier Trophy for 1961 from the National Aeronautics Association, both presented by Pres. John F. Kennedy at the White House. He received an honorary doctor of science degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1982. 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). In 2002-2003, Crossfield served as technical adviser for the 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 was a founding member and fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
Crossfield held single- and multi-engine type ratings and an instrument rating for single-engine general aviation aircraft. In the late 1980s, after 20 years without much flying time, he purchased a 1961 Cessna 210A in which he eventually logged over 2,000 hours. By his 80th birthday in 2001, Crossfield was still flying 200 hours per year with a private pilot/instrument rating.
Throughout his life, Crossfield advocated aerospace education and was a strong supporter of the Civil Air Patrol (USAF auxiliary) and, in particular, CAP’s aerospace education program. He created the A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year Award to recognize and reward teachers for outstanding accomplishments in aerospace education and for their dedication to the students they teach in kindergarten through 12th grade at public, private or parochial schools. Additionally, CAP senior members can qualify for the A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education Award. This recognition program is for CAP senior members who have earned the Master Rating in the Aerospace Education Officer Specialty Track.
Although revered for his flying exploits, Crossfield preferred to emphasize his role as a scientist.
“I am an aeronautical engineer, an aerodynamicist and a designer,” he told Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine in a 1988 interview. “My flying was only primarily because I felt that it was essential to designing and building better airplanes for pilots to fly.”
Jul 24th, 2010 by admin
First photo, Presenter Walter Boyne, Winner Lt. Col. Bill Powley, Presenter Justin Farley
2nd and 3rd Lt. Col. Bill Powley accepting.
4th Lt. Col. Bill Powley
Jul 23rd, 2010 by admin
This appeared in AOPA this week:
http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2010/100720teacher.html?WT.mc_id=100723epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan
Jul 15th, 2010 by admin
The presentation of the 24th A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year Award will be tomorrow night at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Air Force Base, Ohio.
Teachers had a profound influence on Scott’s life and because of this, he established this award in 1986 to show his appreciation and to reward and recognize Kindergarten-12th grade teachers.
Each year the selection committee is faced with the difficult task of selecting only one winner. All nominees were extraordinary in one way or another, and all are dedicated enthusiastic motivators and educators.
This year’s winner is retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bill Powley. Lt. Col. Bill Powley is a Vietnam veteran fighter pilot with experience in F-4, A-7, and F-16 jets. Because he is passionate about introducing teenagers to flight. When he retired from the military he began teaching Air Force Junior ROTC classes at Unicoi County High School in a small town in east Tennessee. This county has no airport, but he built a remarkable aviation success story and today he teaches Aerospace Science and JROTC at Sullivan High School South in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Lt. Col. Bill Powley founded FLIGHT Foundation which stands for Flight Lessons Instructional Grants Helping Teens. This Foundation provides grants and other benefits to help teens learn to fly.
Over the last 19 years, he has soloed over 85 students, flown over 3900 students on orientation flights, 4 private pilots, 4 USAF Academy appointments, 2 West Point appointments and 4 MTSU pilot majors. (Middle Tennessee State University)
His course not only requires the cadets to take required academic courses but they also take specially designed aviation courses. Lt. Col. Powley takes the cadets on learning field trips to enhance their knowledge of historic places in the country including aviation sites. His dedication, “can do” attitude, and contributions to aerospace education make him this year’s A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year.