Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. From reader Andy Folgmann: Name at least one well-known general aviation airplane for which its manufacturer offered JATO (jet-assisted takeoff) rockets as optional equipment.
2. "My legs were amputated following a 1931 training accident. I became reinstated as a fighter pilot in time for the Battle of Britain and became an ace four times over (22.5 kills) despite my artificial legs. I was downed by a midair collision that destroyed my artificial legs, but my German captors allowed a new pair to be airdropped to me. I attempted escape so often that my legs were taken from me. Who am I?
3. Who designed and built the world's first four-engine airplane that actually flew?
4. The popular Vespa motor scooter is manufactured all over Europe but was developed and is still built by what well-known aircraft manufacturer?
5. From reader George Shanks: What do Muhammad Ali, Ray Bradbury, Cher, Aretha Franklin, John Madden, and Bob Newhart have in common?
6. From reader Gerald J. Weiland: Who was the first sitting president of the United States to regularly use a light, general aviation airplane as Air Force One, and what type of aircraft was it?
7. From reader Richard G. Somers: During the 1940s, pilots who learned to fly a(n) _______ were issued private pilot certificates by the CAA (the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the FAA's predecessor) that restricted them to flying only what type of airplane?
8. How did Boeing's Model 229 prototype bomber come to be called a "Flying Fortress"?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. On April 5, 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers (each named after a U.S. city) departed Seattle to become the first aircraft to fly around the world. Which two of the DWCs completed the 175-day journey?
   1. Boston
   2. Chicago
   3. New Orleans
   4. Seattle
10. The world's first hijacking of an airplane occurred in
    1. 1911.
    2. 1921.
    3. 1931.
    4. 1941.
11. A pilot is approaching a runway where LAHSO (land-and-hold-short operations) are in effect. Under the existing conditions, the aircraft needs 2,000 feet of landing distance or 2,500 feet to land over a 50-foot obstacle. For the pilot to participate in LAHSO on this runway, the FAA requires that the available landing distance (ALD) prior to the hold-short lines be at least
    1. 2,500 feet.
    2. 3,000 feet.
    3. 3,500 feet.
    4. 4,000 feet.

TRUE OR FALSE

12. From reader Mark Barchenko: The engines of all Boeing and Airbus jetliners normally are started one at a time.
13. Airmail pilot J.D. Hill once forgot to bring his watch on a flight, so he kept track of en route progress above extensive fog by counting the number of cigars he smoked.
14. A pilot takes off immediately after sunset and sees a sliver of the moon above the horizon and about to set. This is a new moon (a waxing crescent) and not the last remnants of a waning moon.

ANSWERS

1. In 1959, Beech Aircraft offered JATO as an option for its twin-engine Model E18S Twin Beech.
2. Royal Air Force Group Capt. Douglas Bader (1910 to 1982). Paul Brickhill's biography about Bader, Reach for the Sky, was published in 1954 and made into a movie of the same name. Bader was knighted in 1976.
3. While still in Russia, Igor Sikorsky designed and built the Grand, a prototype for the Il'ya Muromets that were adapted as long-range bombers during World War I.
4. Piaggio Aero Industries, developer of the high-speed turboprop Avanti twin, originated in 1884 when Rinaldo Piaggio started a naval construction business. It branched into aviation in 1916.
5. They suffer from aviophobia (also called aerophobia), a fear of flying.
6. President Dwight D. Eisenhower used a twin-engine Aero Commander 520 (an Air Force U-4B emblazoned with a blue-and-white paint scheme) for short trips from 1956 through 1960.
7. Ercoupes were easier to fly than conventional airplanes. Pilots learning in them typically soloed in four hours and earned private pilot certificates in 20 hours. Other pilots usually needed 10 hours to solo and 40 hours to get a certificate.
8. This was how Richard Williams, a reporter for The Seattle Times, described the aircraft when he saw all of its machine-gun installations during the rollout. Boeing liked the name and had it copyrighted.
9. (b) and (c) The Seattle crashed in dense fog on the Alaska Peninsula, and the Boston was forced down in the North Atlantic and sank. (All of the airmen survived.)
10. (c) On February 21, 1931, a group of rebel Peruvian soldiers tried to force two American pilots to drop propaganda leaflets over Lima. The pilots refused to take off, and the rebels ended their seizure nine days later without harming the pilots or the aircraft.
11. (c) The pilot is required to have the distance needed to land over a 50-foot obstacle plus 1,000 feet. If the airplane weighs 6,000 pounds or more, or has 20 seats or more, 160 percent of the charted landing distance is required.
12. False. The engines of the Boeing 777 can be and usually are started simultaneously.
13. True. This was during a night airmail flight from Chicago to Hadley Field (New Jersey) in July 1925. One long stogy, Hill reckoned, lasted for 75 miles, and he always carried a pocketful of them.
14. True. The waning crescent (last remnant of an old moon) sets immediately before sunset and is difficult to see because it is so close to a sun that has yet to set.

Visit the author's Web site ( www.barryschiff.com).