Test Pilot

2. They were officially known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG), but these pilots were better known as _______ and were led by _______.

3. True or false? During World War II, the Radioplane Company of Van Nuys, California, ran the first large-scale production line of purpose-built, radio-controlled drones (used by the Army for training aircraft and antiaircraft gunners). Marilyn Monroe worked on the production line and helped to build many of the 15,000 Radioplane OQ–2s.

4. How does counting cricket chirps allow us to determine ambient temperature to within 1 degree Fahrenheit?

5. True or false? When Emily Howell Warner was hired as a pilot by Frontier Airlines on January 29, 1973, she became the first woman pilot ever hired by a scheduled U.S. airline.

6. A pilot is taxiing on a heading of 315 degrees under the influence of a brisk wind. He is holding the left aileron down and the control wheel fully aft. Both of these control inputs, however, are opposite to what is needed because the wind direction is

A. northerly.
B. easterly.
C. southerly.
D. westerly.

7. From reader George Shanks: The largest aircraft ever built by Boeing is the nearly million-pound 747-8. What is the smallest production airplane built by Boeing following World War II?

8. True or false? Some jet fighters have roll rates in excess of 720 degrees per second, but a barn swallow can roll in excess of 5,000 degrees per second and pivot its head nearly 360 degrees during flight.

Test Pilot Answers

1. Charles A. Lindbergh in his 1953 autobiographical bestseller, The Spirit of St. Louis.

2. The Flying Tigers, Claire Lee Chennault.

3. True. Norma Jeane Mortenson was discovered at Radioplane in 1944 by Army photographer David Conover. While there taking morale-boosting photos of female workers, he recognized her potential as a model. She began modeling for Conover in January 1945 and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.

4. Add to 37 the number of chirps made by an ordinary house cricket in 15 seconds, and the result will be the temperature.

5. False. Helen Richey became first when hired by Central Airlines in 1934 to fly as co-pilot on a Ford Trimotor. She was forced out of the cockpit shortly thereafter, however, by the all-male pilots union. Howell was second but in 1976 became America’s first female airline captain.

6. b) Opposite control inputs (control wheel held left and forward) would mean that the wind is coming from behind and from the right of the aircraft. When heading northwest, this would indicate a wind from the east.

7. It was not a jet. The Boeing L–15 Scout was intended as a military liaison airplane and not marketed to general aviation. Instead, the dozen or so of these two-place, 125-horsepower, production taildraggers wound up with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska.

8. True. Avian experts say that all birds can turn their heads almost 360 degrees, both in flight and on the ground. They also can endure up to 14 Gs because their heads are not above their hearts during flight.