Test Pilot

1. True or false? The United States has not yet developed a hypersonic airplane.
2. “I was born in Hannibal, Missouri, a poor child with a bleak future. I became interested in radios at the age of 10 and later dropped out of high school. After a stint in the Navy, a friend and I invented a practical car radio. I branched into avionics and later invented the eight-track cassette player. Who am I?”
3. From reader George Shanks: True or false? More than half of the world’s airports are in the United States.
4. The Wright Flyer had only one instrument. It was
1. an airspeed indicator.
2. an angle-of-attack indicator.
3. a tachometer.
4. a groundspeed indicator.
5. From reader Joseph DuPont: True or false? The Piper PA–32-3M Cherokee Six was so-designated because it had three engines.
6. The mammoth Goodyear airships Akron and Macon were airborne aircraft carriers. Each could carry (in internal hangars), launch, and retrieve four Curtiss F9C–2 Sparrowhawk fighters. The aircraft were launched by simply dropping them, but how were they retrieved?
7. What are barrage balloons?
8. What famous person made history in 1930 by becoming the first woman in the United States to obtain a glider pilot certificate?

Answers

1. False. A hypersonic airplane is capable of flying at least five times the speed of sound (Mach 5). The rocket-powered, North American X–15 is the fastest manned airplane ever flown and achieved a speed of Mach 6.7 on October 3, 1967. Neil Armstrong was one of the few X–15 pilots.
2. “My name is William P. ‘Bill’ Lear. I am best known for introducing the Learjet in 1963 and giving birth to an entire industry.”
3. False. There are approximately 41,700 airports in the world (including private airports). There about 19,600 airports in the United States or about 47 percent of the total.
4. The correct answer is B. The Wright brothers installed a piece of string that blew in the relative wind to serve as an angle-of-attack indicator.
5. True. This three-engine model of the Cherokee Six led to the development of the twin-engine Piper PA–34 Seneca. It had one engine on the nose and one on each wing.
6. A fighter pilot would approach the belly of the airship from below and while flying very slowly. His goal was to engage a trapeze-like device hanging from the bottom of the dirigible using a large, open hook mounted on top of the aircraft.
7. They are a cluster of large, uncrewed, tethered balloons used to defend ground targets against aerial attack. They raise steel cables into the sky, thus making it hazardous for enemy aircraft to bomb and strafe at low altitude.
8. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of Charles A. Lindbergh, was an accomplished pilot in her own right.