Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. From reader George Shanks: How did the United States unwittingly contribute to the Soviet Union's development of heat-seeking missile technology during the Korean War?
2. What was the first production airplane manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corp.?
3. Under what conditions is it permissible for a pilot without an instrument rating to operate when the visibility is less than one mile?
4. From reader Mike Gillis: The FAA defines night as the "time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight." What is civil twilight?
5. From reader David Shaw: There is nothing unusual about military aircraft sinking enemy ships. Explain how one aircraft captured an enemy ship.
6. From reader Tom Travis: The TKS ice-protection system involves pumping glycol through tiny holes in leading edges and applying a protective layer of antifreeze. What do the letters T, K, and S represent?
7. From reader Mike Day: What were the circumstances surrounding the first shot fired from an airplane?
8. Air Force bases are named after people. Edwards Air Force Base in California, for example, was named after fallen test pilot Glen Edwards. Prior to 1950, Edwards Air Force Base was known as Muroc Army Air Field. Who was Muroc?

TRUE OR FALSE

9. From reader Jeff Pardo: There has never been a production jet-powered biplane.
10. The first successful flight of a jet-powered airplane occurred before World War II.
11. On November 10, 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner completed a nonstop flight from Hong Kong to London and shattered the world distance record for airliners by having flown more than halfway around the world.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

12. The most rapid ambient temperature change ever recorded was a 49-degree Fahrenheit change that occurred over a period of
    1. 2 minutes.
    2. 12 minutes.
    3. 22 minutes.
    4. 32 minutes.
13. The first full-length motion picture shown during an airline flight was
    1. Some Like It Hot (Jack Lemmon) in 1959.
    2. By Love Possessed (Lana Turner) in 1961.
    3. Love With the Proper Stranger (Natalie Wood) in 1963.
    4. Doctor Zhivago (Omar Sharif) in 1965.
14. The first circumnavigation of the world via the North and South Poles was made in 1971 by Elgen Long using which of the following general aviation airplanes?
    1. Beech Baron
    2. Cessna 414
    3. Piper Aztec
    4. Piper Navajo

TEST PILOT ANSWERS

1. During air-to-air combat, an American Sidewinder was fired at a MiG fighter. The missile entered the MiG's tailpipe, did not explode, was recovered, and was sent to Russia for study.
2. The Beech Model 17 Staggerwing, a single-engine biplane with retractable landing gear, but it was the Model 18 Twin Beech that truly set the company on the path to success.
3. Helicopters below 1,200 feet agl in Class G airspace or under special VFR may be operated clear of clouds and without a visibility minimum as long as aircraft speed is slow enough to allow pilots to see and avoid obstructions and other traffic.
4. Civil twilight begins in the morning and ends in the evening when the center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. This is the limit at which terrestrial objects can be clearly distinguished in good weather.
5. On April 23, 1917, the German Zeppelin L-23 attacked the British sailing ship Royal. Royal's crew escaped in boats, and some of the airship's crew descended on rope ladders and sailed the captured ship to Germany.
6. During World War II, three British companies — Tecalemit, Kilfrost, and Sheepbridge Stokes — joined to develop ice protection for British bombers. This resulted in the TKS brand.
7. Lt. Jacob Fickel fired a Springfield 03 rifle at a 15-square-foot target from an airplane flown by Glen Curtiss at an altitude of 100 feet over the Sheepshead Bay Racetrack in New York on August 20, 1910.
8. The Corums were early pioneers in the area, and Corum would have become the name of the township, but there already was a Coram, California, which was too similar. The letters of Corum were reversed to Muroc and used to name the township, the adjacent dry lake (now called Rogers Dry Lake), and the airfield.
9. False. Believe it or not, there was. Poland's PZL-Mielec M-15 Belphegor was developed to replace the Antonov An-2 as a crop duster but came a cropper (the model was discontinued) after 175 were built.
10. True. Germany's Flug Kapitan Erich Warsitz flew a Heinkel He-178 powered by a Heinkel S3B turbojet engine on August 27, 1939.
11. True. The flight went the long way between the cities and covered 11,664 nm. The halfway distance around the world is about 10,800 nm. This airliner could fly from any place on Earth to a point on the opposite side of the world by heading in any of 360 directions (wind and weather permitting).
12. (a) The temperature rose from minus 4 to plus 45 degrees Fahrenheit in 2 minutes on January 22, 1943, in Spearfish, South Dakota.
13. (b) This was aboard a TWA Boeing 707 passenger flight.
14. (d) The San Francisco-to-San Francisco, 38,896-sm flight took 28 days, 43 minutes.

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