ALBERT CREWS (1929 - 2025)

PROFILE

Full Name:

Albert Hanlin Crews, Jr.

Rank:

Colonel, USAF (Retired 1994).

Born:

23 March 1929, in El Dorado, Arkansas, USA (American). Considered Alexandria, Louisiana to be his hometown.

Died:

7 June 2025, aged 96.

Education:

1946: Graduated Buckeye High School, Buckeye, Louisiana.

1950: BSc degree in Chemical Engineering from Southwestern Louisiana Institute.

1959: MSc degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the USAF Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Career Highlights:

1946-1950: Student, Southwestern Louisiana Institute; graduated with BSc degree.

1950-1952: Commissioned in the USAF; (1952) graduated pilot training.

1952-1957: USAF fighter pilot with Air Defense Command; completed one posting to Wheelus AFB, Tripoli, Libya, North Africa.

1957-1959: Student, Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; (1959) MSc degree.

1959-1960: Student, USAF Test Pilot School (Class 60A), Edwards AFB, California.

1960-1962: USAF Test Pilot, Edwards AFB, California. His testing there included work on the F-5, F-104 and F-105 aircraft.

1961-1964: In addition to his test pilot assignments and X-20 Dyna Soar training, Crews flew as chase pilot for several X-15 flights.

18 Jun 1962 - Jan 1963: Student in the 2nd class to complete the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) course at Edwards AFB, California.

1963-1965: Continued test work at Edwards AFB, teaching lifting body approach and landing profiles and zoom manoeuvres; served as a Simulator Crew Member for lunar landing mission simulations at Martin Marietta, Baltimore, in support of the Apollo programme.

X-20 AND MOL ASTRONAUT ASSIGNMENTS

Summer 1962:

Replaced NASA civilian test pilots Bill Dana and Neil Armstrong on the USAF X-20 programme.

19 Sep 1962:

Named as one of six pilots to fly the X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane.

Sep 1962 - Dec 1963:

X-20 training for missions planned to begin in early 1966; (10 Dec 1963) X-20 programme is cancelled and the pilot cadre stood down. Crews resumed his USAF test pilot work at Edwards AFB until 1965.

12 Nov 1965:

Named as one of eight Group 1 Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) programme astronauts.

Nov 1965 - Jun 1969:

MOL astronaut training; (Jun 1969) MOL is cancelled due to rising budget costs, developments in the automated spy satellite field and duplication of some NASA space station (AAP/Skylab) goals.

POST-MOL ASTRONAUT EXPERIENCE

Aug 1969:

Transferred to NASA MSC (from 1973, JSC), Houston, Texas, as a research pilot in the Aircraft Directorate. Aged 40, he was four years over the cut-off age to transfer to the NASA astronaut programme as one of the former MOL astronauts who formed NASA's Class of 1969 (Group 7).

1969-1994:

Assigned to NASA's Aircraft Directorate and subsequently to the Flight Crew Operations Directorate, Houston. Worked on several aircraft programmes, including the KC-135 'Vomit Comet', the Super Guppy cargo transport plane and the WB-57F atmospheric research aircraft. Also worked in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) supporting several Shuttle missions. Shuttle mission support assignments also included being a member of the TAL/EMCC crew recovery team, the G-1 crew (for launch), a NASA 2 crewmember and TAL support in Ben Guerir, Moron and Zaragoza.

1994:

Retired from NASA and from the USAF with the rank of Colonel.