Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. One of the public services performed by The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, is painting compass roses on the ground at general aviation airports. How did this custom of painting begin?
2. From reader Warren Miller: Why do the four digits used in a transponder only go up to 7 instead of 9?
3. Name a currently produced light airplane in which the landing gear may be extended at the airplane's redline airspeed (its never-exceed speed).
4. Under what circumstances were perfectly good airplanes frequently and commonly towed by teams of horses?
5. Name three American-built production airplanes that incorporated or incorporate swing-wing technology.
6. Why did a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird rarely, if ever, take off with full fuel tanks?
7. From reader Ron Stup: Why is "say again" used in radiotelephone communications instead of "repeat"?
8. From reader Larry Kindrick: Modern aircraft carriers are designated by the Navy as CVNs. The carrier USS Nimitz, for example, is CVN-68, the sixty-eighth U.S. aircraft carrier. What do the letters C, V, and N represent?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. From reader Greg Blankenship: The famed World War I German fighter ace, Manfred von Richthofen (aka the Red Baron),
   1. died from illness.
   2. was killed by a jealous husband.
   3. died in the crash of his Fokker Dr.1 Triplane.
   4. died after landing, from a gunshot wound received in flight.
10. The first lightplane manufacturer to build and fly a single-engine turboprop airplane was
    1. Beech Aircraft.
    2. Cessna Aircraft.
    3. Mooney Aircraft.
    4. Piper Aircraft.
11. List the following in order of their glide ratios so that the one with the best glide ratio is first and the one with the worst glide ratio is last.
    1. albatross (the bird)
    2. Boeing 747
    3. Cessna 172
    4. human-powered airplane
    5. modern sailplane

TRUE OR FALSE

12. From reader George Shanks: Most pilots know that rudder is used to offset adverse yaw effect when rolling into and out of turns. Many aircraft that do not exhibit adverse yaw exhibit proverse yaw.
13. From reader Franz Manfredi: Turbofan airplanes utilize bleed air from the compressor sections of their engines for air conditioning, cabin pressurization, and so forth. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, however, does not have such a bleed-air system.
14. From reader Rick Ray: The revered British Supermarine Spitfire Mk. VII of World War II fame had a pressurized cockpit.

TEST PILOT ANSWERS

1. Before the widespread availability of radio navigation, The Ninety-Nines and other groups painted yellow navigation (air) markers on the roofs of buildings, water towers, and the like to assist pilots in locating airports and identifying towns.
2. Early computers worked in octal, a number system with base 8. Zero to 7 are the eight digits in that system. We normally use a number system with base 10, which is the number of digits from zero to 9.
3. There is at least one. The Diamond DA42 Twin Star has a gear-operating speed (V _LO) and a never-exceed speed (V _NE) of 194 knots.
4. Prior to U.S. entry into World War II, the American Neutrality Act prohibited America from flying warplanes into Canada. Aircraft were landed south of the border and towed across (tailwheel first) to nearby airports.
5. The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, Grumman F-14 Tomcat, and Boeing B-1 Lancer.
6. A heavily loaded Blackbird performed poorly at low speed and would have had difficulty maintaining altitude following an engine failure shortly after takeoff. It took off light and was fueled at altitude from a tanker.
7. "Repeat" is used as a military command (especially British) to fire cannons and guns. "Say again" was made a part of the radiotelephone lexicon so that some pilots would not misunderstand and fire their weapons.
8. C stands for "carrier," V for heavier-than-air aircraft (from the French verb voler, "to fly"), and N means "nuclear powered."
9. (d) Richthofen was shot in the chest by a single .303 bullet (from ground or air-to-air gunfire) while flying his red Fokker near the Somme River in northern France. He managed to make an immediate and safe landing, but died in the cockpit shortly thereafter.
10. (b) Cessna's XL-19B was an experimental version of the popular Cessna O-1 Bird Dog. It was equipped with a 210-shaft-horsepower Boeing XT50-BO-1 turboprop engine, first flew on November 5, 1952, and later set a world altitude record of 37,063 feet.
11. (e) 40-to-1, (d) 23-to-1, (a) 20-to-1, (b) 15-to-1, (c) 9-to-1.
12. True. Proverse yaw is exhibited by some airplanes that use spoilers for roll control. During a turn entry to the right, for example, the right spoiler rises to lower that wing and increase its drag, while the left spoiler remains flush with the upper surface of the wing.
13. False. Electrically driven compressors provide compressed air for pressurization and air conditioning on the 787, but conventional engine bleed air is used for the engine anti-ice system.
14. True. The Mk. VII, which is one of many Spitfire models, also had a retractable tailwheel and was used as a high-altitude interceptor.

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