Test Pilot

1. From reader George Shanks: The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) owned and operated by the United States is called GPS (global positioning system). How many other such systems are there and who owns them?
2. True or false? A major U.S. airline operated a supersonic jetliner in scheduled domestic service.
3. What was the Piper PA–48 Enforcer?
4. Aeronautically speaking, which one of the following cities does not belong?
1. Chicago, Illinois
2. Grand Rapids, Michigan
3. Houston, Texas
4. New York, New York
5. Washington, D.C.
5. From reader John Schmidt: During the 1960s, the Hesshaimer children of Munich, Germany, looked forward to the irregular visits from the mysterious American businessman, Careu Kent, who was their mother’s special friend. Who was Careu Kent?
6. What is the lowest VHF frequency used by pilots?
7. Mix ’n match the following Hollywood celebrities with the most appropriate clues:
1. Gene Autry 1. Learned to fly for his role in a movie
2. Charles Bronson 2. Requested to be buried in his uniform
3. Clark Gable 3. Curtiss P–40 fighter pilot
4. Charles “Buddy” Rogers 4. Tail gunner in a B–29
5. Dan Rowan (Laugh-In) 5. Aerial photographer and gunner
6. James Stewart 6. Flew the “Hump”
8. What was America’s first supersonic fighter?

Answers

1. There are five others: China’s BeiDou or Big Dipper (BDS), the European Union’s Galileo, Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), and India’s Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
2. True. Braniff International Airways operated Concorde on the Dallas-to-Washington, D.C., leg of a Dallas-to-Europe flight. This domestic leg was operated subsonically.
3. The Enforcer was a North American P–51 Mustang powered by a 2,445 shaft horsepower turboprop engine instead of a 1,490 horsepower, 12-cylinder Merlin engine. It was developed during the 1970s as a military, close-air support aircraft.
4. The correct answer is A. Chicago does not have an airport named after a president. Grand Rapids, Houston, New York, and Washington have airports named after Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, respectively.
5. Careu Kent was the alias used by Charles A. Lindbergh when he visited children he had fathered in Germany, seven children by three different women. The children never knew his true identity until after his passing in 1974.
6. 75 MHz, the frequency of outer, middle, inner, and airway marker beacons.
7. A-6, B-4, C-5, D-1, E-3, F-2. The movie for which Rogers learned to fly was the 1927 Academy Award winner, Wings. He later became a Navy ferry pilot during World War II.
8. The North American F–100 Super Sabre was the first capable of supersonic speed in level flight, first flew in 1953, and obviously marked the first of the century-series fighters.