Test Pilot

1. What airport has more runways than any other airport in the world?
2. An ornithopter is
   A. helicopter with more than one set of rotors.
   B. a helicopter with one set of rotors.
   C. an early name for a gyroplane (or autogyro).
   D. an airplane with flapping wings.
3. From reader John Schmidt: Pilots planning to land at the Copalis State Airport (S16) in Washington are cautioned that the length of its single runway varies from time to time. Why is this so?
4. True or false? During World War II, the swastika adorned the wings of Luftwaffe fighters.
5. From reader Jim Croasmun: What aviation discovery became the basis for a non-invasive way to treat (get rid of) kidney stones?
6. Francis _____ and Amos _____ worked for Sam Colt making revolvers. They defined the industrial standard for the inch and are household names in aviation.
7. From reader George Shanks: When a sitting president flies aboard a U.S. military airplane, that airplane’s call sign will be Air Force One, Army One, Coast Guard One, Marine One, or Navy One. Air Force One and Marine One are familiar call signs, but has a president ever flown aboard an Army, Navy, or Coast Guard aircraft?
8. Why is seizing control of an aircraft by force referred to as a hijack?

Test Pilot Answers

1. Chicago O’Hare International Airport has eight runways, six of which are parallel to each other. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has seven runways, and several other airports have six.
2. The correct answer is D. Early pioneers attempted to build airplanes with flapping wings, but not one was ever successful.
3. The single sand runway is a stretch of ocean beach, and runway length is affected by tide, beach erosion, and migration of the adjacent Copalis River. (Do not park on the beach overnight because of tidal changes.)
4. False. The swastika was placed on the vertical stabilizer and/or rudder.
5. A Dornier research team discovered that a shock wave ahead of a water droplet caused pitting of the wing as it approached the speed of sound. This led to the development of lithotripsy, the use of ultrasound shock waves to destroy kidney stones so that the remnants can be more easily passed from the body.
6. Pratt (and) Whitney
7. Army One flew many times when the Army and the Marines shared responsibility for flying a helicopter to and from the White House. Navy One flew once, and this was in 2003 when George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a Lockheed S–3 Viking. There has never been a Coast Guard One.
8. The most widely accepted origin of “hijack” stems from “High, Jack,” a command given to drivers of trucks loaded with illicit liquor in the 1920s to raise their arms when being held at gunpoint during highway robberies.