1. What was so special about a twin-engine Lockheed P2V Neptune dubbed the Truculent Turtle?
2. For those who fly pressurized aircraft, what is the difference between an explosive decompression and a rapid decompression?
3. From reader Jonathan Apfelbaum: In what post-World War II competition did Boeing lose a military aircraft manufacturing contract to Cessna?
4. Which of the following does not belong?
A. chandelle
B. Immelmann turn
C. lazy eight
D. wingover
5. What airplane holds the world record for fastest flight around the world?
6. A pilot wants to “go for a hop” in his new airplane. How did the word “hop” come to mean “a short local flight”?
7. Acrophobia is a fear of heights. What term is used to describe a fear of flying?
8. What is the booze news?
Test Pilot Answers
1. In September 1946 this Navy airplane flew nonstop from Perth, Australia, to Columbus, Ohio, a distance of 11,235 miles, in 55 hours, 17 minutes without refueling—a world distance record for piston-powered aircraft that stood for 40 years until shattered by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in the Rutan Voyager in 1986.
2. Explosive decompression is a change in cabin pressure that occurs faster than the lungs can decompress, which can result in serious injury. During rapid decompression, the lungs can decompress faster than the cabin.
3. In its bid to obtain a contract to build single-engine liaison airplanes, the Boeing L–15 Scout lost to the Cessna L–19 Bird Dog.
4. C. The other maneuvers are used to reverse heading. They also are called reversements (from the French word, renversement).
5. On August 15 to 16, 1995, a chartered Air France Concorde (F-BTSD) flew eastbound from New York (John F. Kennedy International Airport) to New York in 31 hours, 27 minutes, 49 seconds with fuel stops in Toulouse, Dubai, Bangkok, Anderson Air Force Base (Guam), Honolulu, and Acapulco. (Time spent on the ground is included in the total time.)
6. HOP is an acronym that evolved during World War I and originally meant a “high operations patrol” (conducted locally).
7. Aviophobia. Aerophobia more accurately is a fear of drafts of air, gasses, or airborne matter.
8. The “booze news” is how some pilots colloquially (and perhaps unadvisedly) notify air traffic control that they have received ATIS Information Whiskey.
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