Test Pilot

1. From reader George Shanks: One of the passive electronic warfare tools on the Boeing B–47 Stratojet was “rope chaff.” What was this and how was it used during the early years of the Cold War?
2. Why is the cluster of engine controls in a cockpit often called a control quadrant?
3. From reader John Schmidt: True or false? In November 2007, Nepal Airlines sacrificed a Himalayan yak in front of a Boeing 757-200 at the airport in Kathmandu to resolve maintenance issues involving that airplane.
4. For multiengine pilots: With respect to the minimum controllable airspeed (V_MC) of a conventional twin with normally aspirated engines, which one of the following causes V_MC to increase?
1. An increase in density altitude.
2. A forward movement of the center of gravity.
3. A reduction in aircraft gross weight.
4. Feathering the propeller of the failed engine.
5. What is the quietest bird in flight?
6. John Alcock and Arthur Witten Brown were first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean (Newfoundland to Ireland, June 14 to 15, 1919). Three weeks later, another aircraft repeated the feat and became first to make a roundtrip across the Atlantic (nonstop each way). What was the aircraft and who was the pilot?
7. “I was the first pilot to shoot down at least five enemy aircraft and thus became the first pilot designated as an ace. I was also the first pilot to perform inverted flight and first to make a parachute jump from an airplane. During the Great War I was shot down and killed by a pilot I had taught to fly. Who was I?”
8. True or false? Germany used V-1 buzz bombs and V-2 rockets to bombard cities in England. The V stood for the German word for victory.

Answers

1. Rope chaff consisted of long strips of foil rolled in a paper container. When dropped from an aircraft, the chaff was designed to unroll, fall across power lines, and cause them to short out, thus disrupting enemy operations.
2. On early aircraft—particularly multiengine aircraft—engine controls were moved through a 90-degree arc or quadrant. With the obvious exception of push-pull controls, modern engine controls typically move through a smaller arc (less than a quadrant).
3. False. The airline sacrificed two goats. This was to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection. Following these sacrifices, the 757 made an uneventful flight to Hong Kong. It is common in Nepal to sacrifice goats and buffaloes to appease different Hindu deities.
4. The correct answer is C. The other three conditions (A, B, and D) result in a decrease in V_MC. Reducing gross weight (C), therefore, increases V_MC and adversely affects engine-out controllability.
5. The owl—most particularly the barn owl—can maintain near silent flight. Owls are so quiet they can fly within mere inches of their prey without being detected.
6. Major G.H. Scott and a crew of 30 made the round-robin flight in a 65-foot-long British R.34 dirigible. The westbound leg from Scotland to Mineola, Long Island, took 108 hours, and the return flight to Norfolk, England, took 75 hours.
7. “I was French test pilot Adolphe Pégoud. After bailing out, I saw my airplane perform on its own what later became known as a loop. I thought I could do that in an airplane and became what many believed to have been the first pilot to perform a loop, but a Russian army pilot had beat me to it by 12 days.”
8. False. The V stood for Vergeltungswaffen, which means revenge (or vengeance) weapons. The V-2 was a forerunner of long-range ballistic missiles.