Test Pilot

1. From reader Martha Lunken: Many military pilots during and shortly after World War II were trained in advanced aircraft using Captivairs. What were these?
2. A pilot has a 120-knot airplane powered by a 200-horsepower engine. He decides to modify the airplane with a larger engine that theoretically will double cruise performance. Everything else being equal, the new engine must produce approximately _______ times as much power.

A. two (400 horsepower)
B. four (800 horsepower)
C. six (1,200 horsepower)
D. eight (1,600 horsepower)

3. True or false? Between 1953 and 1970, United Airlines operated scheduled flights exclusively for men between New York and Chicago and between Los Angeles and San Francisco during which cigar and pipe smoking was allowed, but women and children were not.
4. Charles was a wealthy sportsman and engineer who was eventually killed in a Wright Flyer. Henry struggled from humble beginnings to become an engineer. Their first creation went into production in 1907. What are the last names of this famous duo?
5. From reader Brian Schiff: Who is credited with being first to use “captain” instead of “first pilot” as the title for the pilot in command of an airliner?
6. How can a pilot tell the difference between the aural Morse code identifier of a DME transmitter and the same Morse code identifier of the colocated VOR transmitter?

Test Pilot Answers

1. Developed by pilot Mary Feik, a Captivair was an early procedures trainer consisting of an actual airplane—such as a P–38 or an F–80—held “captive” on concrete blocks. It was mostly operational so that a student could start its engine and practice operating its systems (including landing gear and flaps).
2. The answer is D. Airspeed for a given airframe varies approximately with the cube root of the horsepower increase. Doubling speed, therefore, requires eight times as much power. (The cube root of 8 is 2.)
3. True. These flights were operated initially with Douglas DC–6Bs and later with Sud Aviation Caravelles. The only women allowed on those flights were “stewardesses.”
4. Rolls and Royce. Their first product was the Silver Ghost automobile.
5. Juan Trippe, a former naval flight instructor and head of Pan American Airways when it formed in 1927, regarded the amphibians used by his new airline between Key West and Havana as flying boats, and reasoned that boats have captains. The designation stuck.
6. DME identifiers are transmitted approximately 30 seconds apart, only once for every three or four VOR identifiers.