Test Pilot

1. From reader Jerry Griggs: The first production Learjet was the Model 23 (originally the Lear Jet 23). What did the 23 represent?
2. Which of the following does not belong?
   A. decreased cruise speed
   B. decreased stall speed
   C. easier to increase G load
   D. reduced longitudinal stability
3. From reader John Schmidt: Beginning in 1923, why were airmail pilots grateful to learn, “When Undertaking Very Hard Routes, Keep Directions By Good Methods?”
4. Who was first to perform an outside loop?
5. From reader Brian Schiff: What is the aviation significance of LETZZ RLLLL?
6. True or false? The Lafayette Escadrille was a squadron of French fighter pilots who were equipped with American aircraft and served under American command during World War II.
7. From reader George Shanks: The Martin P6M Seamaster flying boat had a maximum speed of
   A. 236 mph.
   B. 386 mph.
   C. 536 mph.
   D. 686 mph.
8. True or false? The diesel engine, which might have more of a future in general aviation, was invented by Rudolf Diesel.

Test Pilot Answers

1. The Learjet 23 was based on the Swiss P–16 fighter, designed primarily by Dr. Hans Studer. The model designation 23 was the result of the Learjet being Studer’s third twin-jet design (two engines, third design).
2. The correct answer is A. The other choices are characteristics of an aft center of gravity.
3. This is a mnemonic intended to help pilots remember W U V H R K D B G M, the sequence of letters flashed in Morse code by beacons positioned approximately 10 miles apart along an airway. Each letter enabled a pilot to determine which beacon he was observing and, therefore, his position along the airway.
4. A Frenchman, Adolphe Pégoud, performed an outside loop in a Blériot Monoplane on September 1, 1913. The first American to do so was James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who used a Curtiss fighter in the same month that Lindbergh flew to Paris (May 1927).
5. LETZZ RLLLL (“let’s roll”) are consecutive waypoints on the Freedom 5 Arrival to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in honor of Todd Beamer and the other heroes aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001.
6. True. They fought in North Africa and were named after the squadron of pilots from the United States who were impatient with U.S. neutrality and volunteered to fight for the French prior to U.S. entry into the Great War (World War I).
7. The correct answer is D. This flying boat had four turbojet engines and was intended as a nuclear weapon delivery system for the U.S. Navy, but its role was eclipsed by the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile. Twelve were built. 
8. True. The French-born German engineer (1858-1913) developed the “pressure-ignited heat engine” between 1885 and 1898.