Test Pilot

1. From reader George Shanks: Where was the first municipal airport in the United States?

2. What was driven by a propeller, could accelerate to and maintain 143 mph, but could not get off the ground?

3. From reader Brian Schiff: True or false? An instrument-rated pilot who is not instrument current may file and fly an IFR flight plan as long as the entire flight is conducted in VFR conditions.

4. What was the first aircraft to fly nonstop around the world?

5. Who were the first and second pilots to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?

6. The United States’ tallest man-made obstruction (in feet above the ground) and excluding tethered balloons is in

A. Florida.
B. Illinois.
C. New York.
D. North Dakota.

7. True or false? Impatient with the time it took to drive anywhere from northwest Arkansas, Sam Walton purchased an Ercoupe for $1,850 in 1954 and flew it himself to keep tabs on his small collection of existing stores and to scout locations for new ones.

8. Japanese pilots who sacrificed their lives in suicidal missions were called kamikaze pilots. In Japanese, kamikaze means divine wind. Why were these pilots so named?

Test Pilot Answers

1. Tucson, Arizona. The 84-acre site was purchased by the city for $30 an acre, and the first landing was made on the Tucson Municipal Flying Field on November 20, 1919. The airport is now the site of the Pima County Fairgrounds and Tucson Rodeo Grounds.

2. In 1931, Germany produced an 18-ton train that was powered by a 500-horsepower “oil” engine, carried 40 passengers, and was, at the time, the fastest speed ever achieved on rail.

3. False. A pilot may not fly in accordance with instrument flight rules—even in VFR conditions—unless he meets the instrument currency requirements of FAR 61.57(c).

4. The first nonstop flight around the world was completed on March 2, 1949, by a Boeing B–50A. The Lucky Lady II was refueled in flight four times by Boeing KB–29 tankers, landed at Carswell Air Force Base, and flew 23,453 statute miles in 94 hours, 1 minute.

5. Charles Lindbergh completed the first transatlantic solo flight in the Spirit of St. Louis on May 21, 1927. Amelia Earhart completed the second solo flight in a single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B on May 21, 1932, five years to the day following Lindbergh’s crossing.

6. D. The KVLY-TV transmitting tower rises to 2,063 feet agl. It is between Fargo and Grand Forks and can be found on the Twin Cities sectional chart. The tallest building, One World Trade Center, rises to 1,776 feet agl.

7. True. The Ercoupe is on display at the Arkansas Air and Military Museum at Drake Field in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

8. They were named after the typhoons (divine winds) that saved Japan from invasion in the late 1200s. Japan hoped that the modern-day kamikazes would be equally effective in preventing a feared invasion by the United States.