Test Pilot

1. From reader Karl Lautman: How was Miss Shilling’s orifice used to help the Royal Air Force win the Battle of Britain?
2. Why are long flap and landing-gear handles (and other similar levers) often referred to as Johnson bars?
3. Runway 15/33 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was built to accommodate space shuttle landings at the Kennedy Space Center and is 15,001 feet long. Why does its length include what seems to be an extraneous foot?
4. The Luftwaffe is the name of Germany’s air force. What does the word mean in English?
5. From reader Tony Bill: Explain why there is an American Airlines Boeing 737 emblazoned in a TWA paint scheme currently flying along American’s domestic route structure.
6. The most direct and adverse effect of humidity on aircraft performance is
   

   A. reduced wing lift.
   B. reduced propeller thrust.
   C. reduced horsepower.
   D. increased drag.

7. From reader John Schmidt: True or false? Shigenori Nishikaichi, a Japanese pilot who participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, crash landed his battle-damaged Zero in Hawaii during the raid and was treated to a luau by local Hawaiians.
8. Grumman Aircraft manufactured eight fighters that were named after cats. How many of them can you name?

Test Pilot Answers

1. Miss Shilling’s orifice—also known as Miss Tilly’s diaphragm—was a simple fuel-flow restrictor invented by Beatrice “Tilly” Shilling that prevented early Spitfires and Hurricanes from losing power during negative-G maneuvering.
2. The Johnson bar is a tall hand lever with several distinct positions and a positive latch to hold the lever in the selected position. It was found on steam locomotives and evidently named after T.H. Johnson, the engineer who developed it.
3. Runway 4/22 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, is 15,000 feet long and had been the world’s longest concrete runway. The purpose of the extra foot in Florida was to capture the record. That was then. The world’s longest runway now is at the Qamdo Bamda Airport in China and is 18,045 feet long.
4. Luftwaffe literally translates to air weapon.
5. The airline is paying homage to its predecessor airlines by painting seven of its active aircraft in the livery of those original carriers. These seven AA airplanes bear the heritage paint schemes of Allegheny Airlines, America West, Air California, Piedmont Airlines, Reno Air, TWA, and US Airways.
6. The correct answer is C. Water vapor in the atmosphere displaces some of the dry air that would otherwise be available for combustion. This enriches the fuel-air mixture and retards flame propagation in the cylinders.
7. True. Japanese intelligence believed that the tiny Hawaiian island of Niihau (43 miles west of Kauai) was uninhabited, could be used for an emergency landing, and was where downed pilots could await rescue by submarine. Without radio or telephone, locals there did not learn of the attack on Pearl Harbor until two days later, an occasion that did not end well for the Japanese pilot.
8. Bearcat (F8F), Cougar (F9F), Hellcat (F6F), Panther (F9F), Tiger (F11F), Tigercat (F7F), Tomcat (F14), and Wildcat (F4F). There also was the experimental Jaguar (XF10).