A veteran US test pilot who was the first person to fly at twice the speed of sound has died in a plane crash.
Scott Crossfield, 84, was flying a single-engine aircraft when it vanished from radar during a flight from Alabama to Virginia.
The wreckage was found in Georgia. Mr Crossfield was considered one of the greatest test pilots of his time.
He made aeronautical history in 1953 when he reached a speed of Mach 2 in a Skyrocket aircraft.
US officials said the wreckage of Mr Crossfield's light aircraft was discovered about 50 miles (80 kilometres) northwest of Atlanta.
The body inside was identified as Mr Crossfield's, the Civil Air Patrol said. The test pilot reached Mach 2 - a speed of more than 1,320 miles (2,124 kilometres) an hour - on November 20, 1953.
Mr Crossfield made the flight for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (Naca), the forerunner of Nasa.
Another pilot, Chuck Yeager - popularised by the book and film The Right Stuff - had been the first to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947.
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