Test Pilot

1. How did George E. “Buck” Weaver contribute to the effort to win World War II?
2. A pilot lights a short candle, sets it in a holder on top of his glareshield, and then performs a positive-G loop. While at the top of the loop and with the airplane inverted, the tip of the flame points toward the
   A. floor of the airplane.
   B. ceiling of the airplane.
   C. ceiling and leans left.
   D. floor and leans left.
3. From reader John Schmidt: True or false? The Soviet Union put a spacecraft on the moon at the same time that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the moon during their historic 1969 lunar mission in Apollo 11.
4. All four-place Mooney aircraft are designated as Model M-20s (such as the M-20J, M-20M, and so forth). Mooney also manufactured three other aircraft, the M-10, the M-18, and the M-22. Can you identify these aircraft?
5. From reader Ed Wischmeyer: True or false? The stick pusher, which pushes a control wheel (or stick) forward to help prevent an airplane from stalling, was invented many years before the stall-warning indicator.
6. True or false? Fred Noonan was one of two men aboard the first civilian flight around the world in an airplane.
7. From reader Rick Cohen: Which of the following aircraft—if any—actually existed?
   A. a helicopter with ejection seats
   B. an inflatable airplane
   C. a jet-powered, crop-dusting biplane
   D. a steam-powered airplane
   E. a supersonic airplane with a tailwheel
8. Who was known as America’s “Ace of Aces”?

Test Pilot Answers

1. Weaver was a founder and the namesake of the Weaver Aircraft Company (Waco) of Troy, Ohio. His company manufactured the Waco CG-4A combat glider—the first and last of its kind.
2. The correct answer is B. At the top of a positive-G loop, the force of gravity is perceived to come from the opposite direction, which is why the pilot stays firmly in his seat while inverted. Because a flame burns opposite to the perceived force of gravity, it points Earthward in this case, or toward the ceiling of the airplane.
3. True. The Soviets launched Luna 15, an unmanned spacecraft, to robotically gather and analyze lunar soil samples. It crashed into a mountain 344 miles from where Apollo 11’s lunar module, Eagle, had landed.
4. The Mooney Cadet (née Ercoupe), the single-place Mooney Mite, and the five-place Mooney Mustang (a pressurized single), respectively.
5. True. The stick pusher was invented by Mogens Louis Bramson in 1925. He claimed that aural or visual signals are unsatisfactory because they can escape a pilot’s attention. He said also that such signals must be interpreted by the pilot and translated into corrective action. The aural stall warner was patented in 1938.
6. False. Noonan was Amelia Earhart’s navigator. Harold Gatty was Wiley Post’s navigator, and, therefore, was one of the first two civilians to fly around the world.
7. All of them existed. A. the Russian Kamov Ka-50 Black Shark; B. the Goodyear GA-33; C, the Polish PZL M-15 Belphegor; D. the Besler Brothers’ steam-powered Travel Air biplane; and E. Concorde, the supersonic airliner that had a retractable tailwheel to protect against tail strikes.
8. Edward “Eddie” V. Rickenbacker commanded the 94th (“Hat in the Ring”) Pursuit Squadron during World War I and shot down 26 German aircraft in less than six months.