1. From reader Andy Schmidt: True or false? The Mexican Air Force sent its 201st Fighter Squadron of Republic P–47D Thunderbolts to fight against Japan in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
2. True or false? The word empennage is derived from French and refers to the feathers of an arrow.
3. From reader George Shanks: A challenge in World War I fighter aircraft was to determine a way to prevent a pilot from shooting though the propeller disk without shooting off his own propeller in the process. What was the first applied solution to this problem?
4. Can you name 10 three-engine airplanes?
5. From reader John Schmidt: The four-cylinder engine that powered the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, did not have which of the following items?
A. carburetor
B. fuel pump
C. spark plug(s)
D. throttle
6. True or false? Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose is not made of spruce.
7. From reader Martha Lunken: Why during World War II did a USAAF bomber, a Boeing B–17 Flying Fortress, intentionally drop six 250-pound bombs on Miles City, Montana?
8. Ignoring pilot physiology, if a Cessna 172 were given a gentle shove downward from the International Space Station, would the flight controls become effective soon enough to allow the aircraft to be glided safely to Earth?
Test Pilot Answers
1. True. Mexico declared war against the Axis powers after German submarines torpedoed two of its oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico. The squadron was called the Aztec Eagles, is still active, and now flies the Pilatus PC–7. (Brazil was the only other Latin American country to send military forces overseas during World War II.)
2. True. This partially explains why aircraft stabilizers and their related control surfaces are colloquially referred to as tail feathers. See “Ownership: The Tail Tale,” p. 81, for more on the empennage.
3. In 1915 Roland Garros, a French pilot, and Raymond Saulnier, a French aircraft manufacturer, developed steel deflector plates that were placed on the backs of propeller blades to deflect bullets that would otherwise destroy the propeller.
4. There obviously are others, but here are 10 that come to mind: Boeing 727, Britten-Norman Tri-Islander, Dassault Falcon 50, Douglas DC–10, Fokker Trimotor, Ford Tri-Motor, Junkers Ju 52, Hawker Siddeley Trident, Lockheed L–1011 TriStar, and McDonnell Douglas MD–11.
5. The answer is A, B, C, and D. The 12-horsepower, inline, water-cooled engine had none of these. The crankcase was made of lightweight aluminum, and ignition was produced by opening and closing two contact breaker points in the combustion chamber of each cylinder.
6. True. The Hughes H–4 Hercules, aka the Spruce Goose, is predominantly birch.
7. An ice jam was causing the Yellowstone River to back up, threatening the small town with a catastrophic flood of ice, slush, and freezing water. Six bombs from the low-flying B-17 found their mark, thus destroying the ice jam and saving the city in the nick of time.
8. No. The extraordinary true airspeed—even at an indicated airspeed of only 50 knots—would result in such damaging heat, compression, and destructive Mach airspeed effects that little—if any—of the structure would make it to Earth.
