Crossfield had some interesting ideas:
“That [post-WWII aviation] was the flying era, and the flying era has given way to other things.We’re flying 30- and 40-year-old airplanes that are copies of 60- and 70-yearold airplanes. Like the cowboy gave way to the train and the train gave way to the automobile, airplanes have done their thing and it’s probably pretty much dead until the era of the small jet engine catches hold. An engine like Sam Williams’ engines that weighs under 100 pounds that puts out 700 pounds ofthrust is enough to get any aerodynamic designer drooling.”
AVweb interview, March 2001“For a man who was famous for being the first to exceed 2,000 mph, Crossfield used to preach an unusual mantra. He believed that, ‘You make your own luck. When I was flying the rocket planes at Edwards AFB in the ’50s, I was being paid to define the upper limits of performance. Since no one had ever been there, we needed to see what would happen at the top of the envelope, and that was my job.’
“‘Today, I never run my engine hard because there’s nothing to prove. There’s just no reason to run a general aviation engine harder than about 55% power for cruise.’”
Plane and Pilot article, March 2013