Test Pilot

1. From reader Richard Wilsher: Why is it that no U.S. registered aircraft bears registration N16020, nor will any aircraft in the future have that registration?
2. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from west to east, but who was the first woman to do so in the opposite direction?
3. From reader George Shanks: True or false? An Air Force pilot flying a McDonnell Douglas F–15A Eagle shot down a 345-mile-high satellite orbiting the Earth at 15,000 mph with a heat-seeking missile.
4. When an FAA-certificated pilot flies his U.S.-registered airplane in a foreign country (including Canada and Mexico), he must abide by
   A. the federal aviation regulations.
   B. regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),
   C. the regulations of the host country.
   D. The most restrictive of the above.
5. Why do some fighter aircraft have tailhooks even though they were never intended to land on aircraft carriers?
6. Which of the following does not belong?
   A. cantilever
   B. decalage
   C. interplane strut
   D. stagger
7. From reader Bill Havener: Which, if any, of the principle Axis powers of World War II (Germany, Italy, and Japan) developed and manufactured four-engine, long-range bombers during the war?
8. Why are the control sticks of an airplane (as well as certain computer controls) called joysticks?

Test Pilot Answers

1. In agreement with The Ninety-Nines, the International Organization of Women Pilots, the FAA permanently retired N16020, the registration number of the Lockheed Electra 10E in which Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared during their ill-fated attempt to fly around the world in 1937.
2. Pioneer bush pilot Beryl Markham, whose story was told in her popular book, West with the Night.
3. True. On September 13, 1985, Maj. Wilbert “Doug” Pearson Jr. became the first and only Air Force pilot to shoot down an orbiting satellite. He used a purpose-built, multistage ASM-135 antisatellite missile developed by Ling-Temco-Vought to bring down the aging satellite, which was the size of a 1969 Volkswagen.
4. The correct answer is D. When any of these regulations are in conflict, the pilot must abide by the most restrictive ones (per FAR 91.703). It is the pilot’s responsibility to know the applicable regulations.
5. Arresting cables span many runways used by military fighters to assist in stopping aircraft that might experience brake failure, for example. The location of these cables on the runway are indicated by solid, 10-foot yellow circles painted across the runway. They can be found at some civilian airports jointly used by the military (such as Yuma International Airport in Arizona).
6. The correct answer is A. The other three items refer exclusively to the features of a biplane.
7. All of them did. Germany produced the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, Italy the Piaggio P.108 Bombardiere, and Japan the Nakajima G5N Shinzan and G8N Renzan.
8. The control stick of an airplane is considered to have been developed by James Henry Joyce and was originally called a Joyce stick, which became foreshortened with use to joystick.