Test Pilot

1. Many older, large, multiengine airplanes required a flight engineer to operate and monitor aircraft systems and engines. Can you name a production American airplane that required more than one flight engineer?
2. N104RB was the fastest civilian airplane ever registered with the FAA. What was it, and how fast did it fly?
3. From reader John Schmidt: True or false? The first woman to make a (solo) parachute jump from an airplane was 92 years old.
4. With respect to Wiley Post’s Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae, which of the following is not correct?
1. Post had two Lockheed Vegas named Winnie Mae.
2. Post and Will Rogers were killed in Winnie Mae during a takeoff near Port Barrow, Alaska.
3. Winnie Mae was the first airplane to fly twice around the world.
4. Winnie Mae had an absolute ceiling of 55,000 feet.
5. From reader George Shanks: Why were almost 2,000 airplanes shot down by friendly fire over the United States during World War II?
6. True or false? The German Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber of World War II emitted a shrieking sound. This was a coincidental and unexpected result of the aircraft design.
7. From reader William Vaughnn: Following the fall of France during World War II, Curtiss P–36 Hawks built for the French Air Force were diverted to the Royal Air Force. What unique design feature of French airplanes had to be modified before British pilots were allowed to fly these aircraft?
8. What were America’s first certified two-engine, three-engine, and four-engine airliners?

Answers

1. Only seven of the humongous Martin JRM Mars flying boats were built for the U.S. Navy during World War II, and each required two flight engineers.
2. Daryl Greenamyer used his privately owned F–104RB Starfighter, the Red Baron, to set a world speed record of 986 mph (857 knots) on October 24, 1977. At high altitude, it was faster than Concorde, the supersonic transport.
3. False. It was just the other way around. Georgia “Tiny” Broadwick was only 15 when she bailed out of an airplane piloted by Glenn L. Martin in 1912. She had previously jumped from a hot-air balloon, invented the ripcord, and logged approximately 1,000 jumps during her career.
4. The correct answer is B. The tragedy occurred in a Lockheed Sirius floatplane, not in a Vega. For high-altitude flights, Winnie Mae was modified with jettisonable landing gear and a metal belly skid for landing.
5. Almost 2,000 remotely flown Culver Cadets were used as targets to provide training and practice for antiaircraft gunners.
6. False. Small, propeller-driven, bombing sirens were installed on the aircraft. These were called “Jericho’s Trumpets,” looked like wind-driven generators, and were designed to terrify those on the ground.
7. French throttles were moved aft to increase engine power, and vice versa. British pilots were not allowed to fly these aircraft until their throttles were modified to operate conventionally (move forward to increase power, and vice versa).
8. They were the 1928 Sikorsky S-38A Amphibion, the Fokker F–10 Tri-Motor (1928), and the Fokker F–32 (1929), respectively.