1. Why were parachutes used so infrequently by World War I pilots who were equipped with them?
2. What 1904 vehicle was the direct result of the Wright brothers’ first flight a year earlier?
3. Why are Cessna’s business jets called Citations?
4. The total wing area of a multiengine airplane with wing-mounted engines _____ that portion of each wing occupied by the nacelles and _____ that area of the wing projected through the fuselage.
A. includes, includes
B. includes, excludes
C. excludes, excludes
D. excludes, includes
5. True or false: The Flying Nun was a TV sitcom (1967-1970) about a nun, Sister Bertrille (played by Sally Field), who could catch a breeze and fly. This was attributed to her light weight, strong winds at the convent sitting high on an ocean bluff, and the aerodynamic shape of her starched headwear. The series was based on an actual flying nun.
6. These aircraft manufacturers have familiar and famous last names, but what are their first names?
_____ Beech, _____ Bellanca, _____ Boeing, _____ Cessna, _____ Douglas, _____ Grumman, _____ Lockheed, _____ McDonnell, _____ Messerschmitt, _____ Northrop, _____ Piper, and _____ Stearman
7. From reader Douglas Boyd: American airplanes with only nose-mounted propellers exhibit a left-turning tendency (caused by P-factor) during climb while British airplanes exhibit a right-turning tendency. What kind of airplanes with nose-mounted propellers exhibit neither a left- nor a right-turning tendency in a climb?
8. True or false? A tricycle-gear airplane with a 50-knot stall speed is tied down loosely while pointed into a 60-knot wind. The wing cannot develop sufficient lift to cause the airplane to rise off the ground.
Test Pilot Answers
1. Proud pilots scorned parachutes as affronts to their valor. Also, the Allied High Command discouraged their use because “a pilot’s job is to stick with his aeroplane.”
2. The Macduff Aeropinion was a propeller-driven automobile that generated prodigious clouds of dust and pebbles on the dirt streets. It was particularly dangerous because of its exposed propeller and went out of production in 1905.
3. The airplane was named after the champion racehorse, Citation, a Triple Crown winner that won 16 consecutive major races and was the first racehorse to have earned a million dollars.
4. The correct answer is A. With respect to the wing projection through the fuselage, the wing area of a single-engine airplane is determined similarly.
5. True. Sister Mary Aquinas Kinskey learned to fly in Wisconsin and taught aeronautics to military personnel at Catholic University during World War II. Called the Flying Nun, she was the subject of a 1957 television play, The Pilot, the basis for the TV sitcom. She received an award from the U.S. Air Force for “outstanding contributions to the advancement of air power in the interest of national security and world peace.”
6. Walter and Olive Ann Beech, Giuseppe Bellanca, William Boeing, Clyde Cessna, Donald Douglas, Leroy Grumman, Allan (Loughead) Lockheed, James McDonnell, Willy Messerschmitt, John “Jack” Northrop, William Piper, and Lloyd Stearman.
7. Airplanes with a pair of nose-mounted, coaxial, contra-rotating propellers do not create a turning tendency during climb. Britain’s Fairey Gannet, a post-World War II, carrier-based submarine hunter, was such an airplane. This configuration is aerodynamically similar to helicopters with coaxial, contra-rotating rotors that do not produce torque and, therefore, do not need tail (anti-torque) rotors.
8. True. The angle of attack of the wings is too small (and possibly negative) to generate sufficient lift.
