Test Pilot

1. Why did the Lockheed Constellation have an elongated, S-shape fuselage, a feature that unwittingly contributed to the airplane’s stylish beauty?
2. True or false? The first use of manned aircraft in the United States for military purposes occurred during the Civil War.
3. From reader Sam Robertson: When a newly hired flight attendant entered the cockpit of an early Boeing 707 or 747 during flight for the first time, she often was initiated by a crewmember who would sneakily open a valve in the ceiling that resulted in a loud, startling rush of air escaping from the aircraft. What was the purpose of that valve?
4. In aviation jargon, what is a truck?
5. From reader John Schmidt: During World War II, it was initially difficult to get pilots to fly the B–29 Superfortress because the airplane had a reputation for being dangerous and difficult to fly. What was done to overcome this shortage of volunteer pilots?
6. A pilot declaring an emergency might transmit “Mayday.” The Aeronautical Information Manual recommends that a pilot with an urgent condition (less serious than an emergency or distress situation) might transmit “Pan Pan.” What is the meaning of the word pan?
7. From reader Jay Levine: What is a volplane?
8. True or false? When a Mooney pilot applies nose-up trim (in a four-place Mooney), the vertical stabilizer simultaneously moves (sweeps) forward.

Test Pilot Answers

1. The nose was made to dip to allow for a shorter nosewheel strut, and the aft fuselage was made to rise to position the horizontal stabilizer above the propwash.
2. True. General George McClellan’s Union Army used manned balloons to monitor enemy troop movement.
3. That is where the navigator inserted and attached his sextant when “shooting the stars” during celestial navigation.
4. A truck is a landing gear leg that usually has four wheels (or more) arranged like those on an automobile or truck.
5. Two women pilots, Dora Dougherty and Dorothea Moorman, were trained to fly the B–29. During their flight test, the women pilots coped with a cockpit filled with smoke from an actual engine fire and returned to the airport for a safe landing. This convinced male pilots that, “well, the airplane must not be such a ‘beast’ after all.”
6. Pan comes from the French word, panne, which means breakdown. Aeronautically, therefore, pan signifies a breakdown in safety.
7. It is a maneuver, not an aircraft. A volplane is a steep dive most often performed by an airplane with the engine shut down or perhaps idling.
8. True. The trimmable horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer move as a single unit in response to pitch-trim input. Similarly, the vertical fin moves (sweeps) aft when nose-down trim is applied. This movement of the vertical stabilizer presumably improves rudder effectiveness at low speed and reduces drag at high speed.