Test Pilot

1. From reader George Shanks: The Boeing B–52 Stratofortress and the Lockheed U–2 “Dragon Lady” have bicycle landing gear—also called tandem landing gear—consisting of two main landing gear wheels set one behind the other on the bottom of the fuselage. What general aviation aircraft typically have such a landing-gear configuration?
2. The first person to fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean was:
1. John W. Alcock
2. Charles A. Lindbergh
3. Charles Nungesser
4. Albert C. Read
3. What airplane was delivered from the factory with a periscope?
4. When was a two-way radio first used aboard an aircraft?
5. From reader J. David Seay: What American city’s two main airports are named after two men who perished in the same airplane accident?
6. True or false? The Winnie Mae—which was the aircraft used twice by Wiley Post to fly around the world (in 1931 and 1933)—was equipped with a groundspeed indicator.
7. True or false? Flown by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in 1986, the Rutan Model 76 Voyager was the last airplane to be flown nonstop around the world without refueling.
8. A pilot is flying across the agonic line (line of zero magnetic variation) in the vicinity of St. Louis at a latitude of 40 degrees north on a compass heading of 265 degrees. Compass deviation on all headings is -5 degrees. If he maintains this heading under no-wind conditions until reaching the Pacific Ocean, will his latitude increase, decrease, or remain the same?

Test Pilot Answers

1. Bicycle landing gear is a configuration typically associated with gliders (sailplanes).
2. The correct answer is D. In 1919, Read flew an 84-knot Curtiss NC–4 flying boat from Newfoundland to the Azores to Lisbon, Portugal.
3. The Spirit of St. Louis was equipped with a periscope to enable its pilot to see over the nose, although Charles Lindbergh said in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Spirit of St. Louis, he never used it.
4. On September 9, 1910, a British Bristol Boxcar piloted by Robert Loraine flew near Stonehenge, England, and communicated with the ground using a Marconi wireless radio.
5. Oklahoma City. The primary air carrier airport is named after humorist Will Rogers and the large general aviation airport is named after famed aviator Wiley Post. Both men perished in Alaska in 1935 with Post at the controls of their seaplane.
6. True. The Gatty groundspeed indicator was a prismatic device that allowed the pilot to look through a sight and determine the speed at which objects on the ground passed beneath the aircraft.
7. False. In 2006, 20 years after the Voyager flight, Steve Fossett flew the Scaled Composites Model 311 Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer—a jet-powered version of the Voyager (also designed by Burt Rutan)—around the world nonstop and without refueling.
8. The pilot’s magnetic heading is 270 degrees. As he proceeds westbound, however, magnetic variation becomes increasingly easterly. This means that the true heading steadily increases during the flight, which causes latitude to increase.