Test Pilot

1. From reader George Shanks: British designer R.J. Mitchell wanted to name his new fighter aircraft the Shrew. Why was it instead called the Spitfire?
2. Famed World War II Luftwaffe pilot Adolf Galland adorned his fighter aircraft with which of the following insignias?
   A. Mickey Mouse
   B. a Star of David
   C. a caricature of Betty Grable
   D. frankfurters
3.  From reader John Schmidt: In a bid to increase tourism, the Chinese city of Xilinshul created a QR code, which—when scanned with a smartphone—links to the city’s tourism chat on a social media network. Why can this only be done when airborne?
4. True or false? With an elevation of 9,927 feet, Lake County Airport in Leadville, Colorado, is the highest airport in the United States with an instrument approach.
5. Saylor Davis was a safety instructor for TWA. He taught that a pilot needed only to keep three things under control to assure himself that he would die in bed instead of in an airplane. What are those three things?
6. If Howard Hughes had asked his mechanic to change all the spark plugs in his Hughes-Kaiser HK–1 Spruce Goose, how many plugs would he have had to change?
7. From reader CFI Jason Miller: True or false? G-load and stall speed always increase when entering and maintaining a turn.
8. The only airplane in the world equipped to fly into the core of a mature thunderstorm is a
   A. Beech King Air.
   B. Lockheed L–188C Electra.
   C. Lockheed EC–130Q Hercules.
   D. North American T–28 Trojan.

Test Pilot Answers

1. Sir Robert McLean, head of Vickers Aviation and Supermarine, wanted to call it the Spitfire because this was the nickname he used for his spirited daughter, Annie, a girl with a fiery temper.
2. The correct answer is A. General Galland was a fan of Disney cartoons. 
3. The massive QR code can only be seen and scanned from the air. It measures 744 feet on each side and consists of 130,000 strategically placed juniper trees.
4. True. There is an RNAV (GPS) approach to Runway 16. An airplane using this approach, however, must have the performance required to climb to the missed-approach altitude of 16,000 feet.
5. Davis said, “A pilot who keeps flammables, inertia, and gravity under control will never have an accident.”
6. The Spruce Goose had eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major engines. Each had 28 cylinders and required 56 spark plugs. The 3,000-horsepower engines, therefore, had 448 spark plugs.
7. False. This is true only when maintaining a constant altitude or rate of descent. You can enter a turn and temporarily avoid the increasing G-load and stall speed by pitching nose down to maintain 1 G or less. There is a limit, of course, to how long this can be done before airspeed and sink rate become excessive.
8. The correct answer is D. A specially modified single-engine T–28 has armor-plated leading edges, steel bracing over the canopy, a ¾-inch-thick windshield, and remarkably courageous pilots.