On Nov. 20, 1953, Scott Crossfield, a government test pilot for the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), became the first person fly at twice the speed of sound. His swept-wing Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket research aircraft was dropped from the belly of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress "mother ship" at 32,000 feet over California's Mojave Desert. As the Skyrocket fell away from the B-29, Crossfield ignited the plane’s XLR-8 rocket engine and began to climb. At 72,000 feet he pushed over into a shallow dive. As he passed through 62,000 feet, his airspeed indicator reached Mach 2.005 (1,291.8 mph).