Test Pilot

1. From reader Joe Valla: What was the first jet fighter to operate from U.S. aircraft carriers?
2. True or false? One way to determine that the Boeing 747 used in the movie Air Force One is not the genuine article is that it lacks the bulge on the nose of the aircraft that conceals the aerial-refueling receptacle.
3. From reader John Schmidt: True or false? There has never been an Olympic medal awarded for Aeronautics.
4. Which U.S. states are the most northerly, most easterly, most southerly, and most westerly?
5. Why was the Lockheed SR–71 Blackbird not equipped with a global positioning system for navigation?
6. True or false? The first horseless carriage was powered by kites.
7. From reader George Shanks: There are five countries in the world that do not have an airport, and all five are in Europe. Can you name them?
8. The FAA requires that VASI equipment be capable of generating a visual glideslope as shallow as 1 degree and as steep as
   A. 6 degrees.
   B. 9 degrees.
   C. 12 degrees.
   D. 15 degrees.

Test Pilot Answers

1. The straight-wing North American FJ–1 Fury was the U.S. Navy’s first operational jet fighter. It could take off from a carrier without catapult assistance, was replaced by the Grumman F9F Panther, and was developed into the F–86 Sabre.
2. True. The “Flying White House” can be refueled in flight.
3. False. Although there has never been an Olympic contest involving aviation, Switzerland was awarded a gold medal in Aeronautics at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 in recognition of Hermann Schreiber’s glider flight over the Alps. There were plans to establish Aeronautics as an Olympic event, but the 1940 games were canceled because of the war in Europe.
4. Alaska, Alaska, Hawaii, and Alaska, respectively. Note: Alaska is most easterly because the Aleutian Islands stretch to almost 170 degrees east longitude, which means that the westernmost part of Alaska is in the Eastern Hemisphere.
5. In the event of war, GPS satellites can be damaged or destroyed by an enemy. Stars, however, cannot be. The SR–71 had an adaptable navigation system (ANS) that used star tracking and was accurate within feet.
6. True. In 1827, George Pocock, an English schoolmaster, hitched a carriage to two large kites flown in tandem. By steering the lower, aft kite with two cords, he could navigate the carriage for a considerable distance.
7. The five European countries are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City, the world’s smallest country.
8. The correct answer is C. At a groundspeed of 80 knots, a 12-degree descent profile would require a sink rate of 1,723 fpm (as compared to 425 fpm for a 3-degree glideslope).