NACA test pilot Scott Crossfield becomes the first pilot to fly twice the speed of sound, during a research run of the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket at Edwards, CA. During a shallow dive the Skyrocket attains an airspeed of Mach 2.005 at an altitude of 62,000 ft. A single Reaction Motors XLR-8-RM-6 four-chamber liquid propellant rocket engine burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and diluted ethyl alcohol powers the plane which was from a Boeing P2B-1S (Navy B-29).