Test pilot

1.  From reader Jerry Griggs: True or false? Many homebuilt and experimental airplanes have been powered by converted or modified automobile engines, the Ford V-6, Volkswagen, and Corvair engines to name a few. No airplane, however, has ever been certified and produced in the United States with a converted or modified automobile engine.
2. Who was the first licensed woman pilot in the United States?
3. From reader Gary Holden: True or false? There was a time when the government encouraged civilians to become pilots by offering them 72 hours of ground school and 35 hours of flight training at no cost.
4. What are their first names?
1. de Havilland
2. Fahrenheit
3. Lockheed
4. Luscombe
5. Sopwith
6. Stearman
5. Who was the first successful glider pilotTrue or false? During World War II, Focke-Wulf Fw.190s were mounted on top of unmanned, twin-engine Junkers Ju 88s. The fighter pilot took off with the larger, powered aircraft suspended beneath him, dove toward a target, and dropped the explosive-filled parasite aircraft when a half-mile from the target
6. From reader Roger Bourke: What vortac shares its name with and possibly obtained its name from a famous, 6-mile-distant brothel?
7. It takes time to pump air out of an altitude chamber and reduce the atmospheric pressure inside. If a pilot wearing a space suit is sitting in such a chamber at an “altitude” of 25,000 feet, how is it possible to simulate sudden decompression and instantly elevate the chamber to 73,000 feet?

Answers

1.  False. There have been several, the most notable being the Mooney M20L of which 41 were produced in 1988 and 1989 with Porsche PFM 3200, 6-cylinder, air-cooled automobile engines.
2. In 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first woman in America to receive a pilot’s license. A year later she became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Although she perished in an aircraft accident when only 37, she significantly influenced the role of women in aviation.
3. True. The purpose of the Civilian Pilot Training Act of 1939 was to help prepare America for war by increasing the number of civilian pilots for possible military service. The CPT program trained 435,165 pilots between 1939 and 1944.
4. Geoffrey de Havilland, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Allan Lockheed, Donald Luscombe, Thomas “Tommy” Sopwith, and Lloyd Stearman.
5. Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896) was a German pioneer of aviation. He was known as the “flying man” after becoming the first person to make repeated, successful flights in gliders and making heavier-than-air aircraft a reality.
6. True. This hybrid, called the Junkers Mistel, carried almost 4 tons of explosives and achieved limited success toward the end of the war.
7. Mustang (FMG)—formerly the Reno vortac—shares its name with and overlooks the world-famous Mustang Ranch on I-80.
8. The altitude chamber in which the pilot sits is smaller (215 cubic feet) than a larger chamber (1350 cubic feet) to which it is connected. The large chamber is prepared by slowly depressurizing it to an “altitude” of 130,000 feet. When the valves between the two chambers are opened, the pressure inside both suddenly equalizes at 73,000 feet.