Test Pilot

1. Doodlebugs are European beetles. Why were doodlebugs so feared by Londoners during World War II?

2. What is the world’s fastest bird, and what is its top speed?

3. From reader George Shanks: The Piper PA–23 Apache first flew on March 2, 1952, and became the world’s first successful, all-metal light twin. It was based on an airplane originally developed by

A. Beech Aircraft.
B. Cessna Aircraft.
C. Curtiss-Wright.
D. Stinson Aircraft.

4. True or false? No U.S. president has ever been a certificated civilian pilot.

5. What general aviation airplane’s shape was based on that of the North American P–51 Mustang?

6. Arrange the following aircraft in the chronological sequence in which they were originally introduced:

A. Beech Model 35 Bonanza
B. Cessna 150
C. Cessna 172
D. Piper Cherokee 140

7. From reader Steve Maiman: How far into a nimbostratus cloud can a pilot fly?

8. What was a “DC–2 and a half?”

Test Pilot Answers

1. Doodlebug was the innocent-sounding nickname given by the British to Hitler’s V-1 (Vengeance Weapon 1). Also called a “buzz bomb,” this devastating, pilotless flying bomb carried 1,870 pounds of high explosive in its nose. It was essentially an early cruise missile powered by a deafening pulsejet engine.
2. The peregrine falcon has been clocked in a dive at 220 mph. Imagine diving a Cessna 182 at VNE and being passed by a bird going 20 mph faster.
3. The answer is D. The Piper PA–23 Apache (and later the Aztec) was developed from the Twin Stinson, which was inherited when Piper purchased the Stinson Division of Consolidated Vultee. The Twin Stinson, however, had an H-tail that Piper changed to a single vertical stabilizer.
4. False. President Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower made his first solo flight over the Philippines in 1937 and obtained a private pilot certificate at Fort Lewis, Washington in 1939. Presidents George W. and George H.W. Bush were strictly military pilots.
5. North American Aviation built 1,027 NA–145 Navions before selling the rights to Ryan Aeronautical, which built 2,634 of them. The Navion also incorporated the P–51’s sliding canopy.
6. A Beech Bonanza (1947), C. Cessna 172 (1956), B. Cessna 150 (1959), D. Piper Cherokee (1961).
7. Only halfway. Beyond that point, he will be flying out of the cloud (and no longer into it). Sorry about that.
8. A China National Airways DC–3 was strafed on the ground near Kiuchuan, China, by Japanese fighters in 1941. The right wing was destroyed and replaced with a DC–2 wing that was 10 feet shorter. Somewhat askew, the airplane flew.