1. From reader Rick Cohen: In 1959 the Southern California Soaring Society awarded a trophy for the shortest powerless descent time from 38,000 feet. What was the descent time, and what was the type of aircraft?
2. Because of a mechanical problem, a pilot flying a retractable-gear airplane has to make a gear-up landing. In most cases, his best choice of landing sites would be
a. a dirt runway.
b. a foamed, hard-surface runway.
c. a grass runway.
d. a hard-surface runway without foaming.
3. From reader John Schmidt: The last thing that Paul Tibbets dropped out of an airplane (a B–29 named Enola Gay) was an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. What was the first?
4. True or False: A strong wind is blowing across a narrow gorge or canyon. The strongest downdrafts are on the downwind side of the gorge.
5. From reader Paul Reinman: True or False: The United States allows Russia and other nations to overfly in surveillance aircraft our most secret bases, including Groom Lake (aka Area 51).
6. Stove lids—which are flat, cast-iron discs found on old, wood-burning stoves—were used by many World War I pilots to
a. place on their seats.
b. drop on the enemy.
c. bribe the enemy after a forced landing behind enemy lines.
d. adjust an airplane’s center of gravity.
7. How is an antique airplane defined?
8. True or False: Afterburners produce a burst of additional jet thrust on some aircraft. This is accomplished by igniting unused fuel and oxygen that escape from the combustion chambers and flow through the turbines and into the tailpipes of such engines.
Test Pilot Answers
1. On June 8, 1959, test pilot Scott Crossfield was released from the belly of a B–52 in an X–15 and made a powerless descent from 38,000 feet in 3 minutes 58 seconds, an average descent rate of 9,579 feet per minute. (The space shuttle, which came later, descended more rapidly.)
2. (d) This usually results in minimal aircraft damage and no bodily injury. Softer surfaces can result in part of the aircraft “digging in,” and foamed (slippery) surfaces can cause a loss of directional control. These conditions increase the potential for damage and injury.
3. Tibbets took his first airplane ride with a barnstormer in a biplane at the age of 12 in 1927. He was assigned the task of dropping Baby Ruth candy bars (with small paper parachutes attached) over the Hialeah Race Track near Miami as part of an advertising promotion for the Curtiss Candy Company.
4. True. Also, the worst turbulence is found between the middle and downwind side of the gorge.
5. True. The Open Skies Treaty of 1992 allows member nations to overfly other nations as a trust-building and mutual-understanding exercise.
6. (a) Early fighter pilots flew fabric-covered airplanes and sat on stove lids to protect their backsides against enemy ground fire. Stove lids were the first form of armor used in airplanes.
7. Antiques are pre-1936 aircraft.
Classic aircraft were built from 1936 to 1941. Warbirds were built from 1941 to 1945. Finally, neo-classic aircraft were built from 1946 to 1956.
8. False. Fuel is injected into the tailpipe and burns because of unused oxygen in the exhaust. (Less than half of the available oxygen is consumed in the combustion chambers.) Afterburners are called reheaters in Great Britain.
Illustration by John Sauer
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