Test Pilot

1. From reader William “Bill” Havener: At what airport—or aircraft boneyard—was assembled the largest number of aircraft ever brought together in one place at one time?
2. True or false? The Douglas DC–3 was built by the Soviet Union during World War II.
3. The first official all-women’s air race was the 1929 Women’s Air Derby and was flown from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio. It became better known, however, as the Powder Puff Derby, a nickname coined by
   A. W.C. Fields.
   B. Paul Harvey.
   C. Will Rogers.
   D. George Herman “Babe” Ruth.
4. Art and Al originally manufactured their airplanes in Wichita, Kansas, and later developed a popular airplane that in 1977 was selected as the “Airplane of the Year” by Plane and Pilot magazine. What was their last name?
5. Who was first to fly nonstop across the Pacific Ocean (Japan to California) and in what type aircraft was the flight made?
6. Who were the only two heads of state to become pilots while holding office?
7. A captain for a major airline spotted burning farm buildings from the air and decided to circle the Illinois farmhouse in his airliner to waken the presumably sleeping occupants. Who was the famous pilot who effected this unusual rescue?
8. True or false? A true heading corrected for magnetic variation always results in a magnetic heading.

Test Pilot Answers

1. By the spring of 1946 there were more than 11,000 warbirds parked at an aircraft disposal site that had been the Walnut Ridge Army Air Field in Arkansas. By comparison, the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona, has only about 4,400 aircraft.
2. True. The USSR had a licensing agreement with Douglas Aircraft to build the DC–3. The Soviet version was designated as the Lisunov Li–2.
3. The correct answer is C, humorist Will Rogers. Some referred to participants as petticoat pilots. Women entrants had to have at least 100 hours of solo flight time and 25 hours of cross-country time, the same as men then competing in the National Air Races.
4. Art and Al Mooney. The airplane was the Mooney 201, so called because it could cruise at 201 mph on its 200-horsepower Lycoming engine.
5. The 700-foot-long LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin was flown by airship designer and visionary Dr. Hugo Eckener in August 1929. This transpacific flight was the third of four legs flown during this, the first and only around-the-world flight ever made in an airship.
6. The first was King Michael of Romania, and the second was King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan.
7. Elrey B. Jeppesen was the captain of that United Airlines Boeing 247 at dawn on that 1934 morning. Jeppesen later became the developer of Jeppesen navigation and approach charts.
8. True. Deduct an extra point from your score if you anticipated a trick question.