- Great Britain was the first to manufacture a jetliner and place it into service. This was the de Havilland Comet in 1952. What was the second country to place a jetliner into service?
- True or false? Paul W. Tibbets, captain of the Boeing B–29 Superfortress Enola Gay, could feel the effects of nuclear radiation shortly after the first atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan.
- From reader Jerome Limoge III: Only one state supreme court convenes in a building named after a convicted felon who served time in a state prison. What famous aviation pioneer lends his or her name to this facility?
- The three-letter identifiers of many U.S. airports are created from the names of the cities they represent. For example, SFO is San Francisco. Explain the origins of the seemingly illogical identifiers for these major airports:
- Chicago O’Hare International Airport—ORD
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport—CVG
- Kahului Airport, Maui—OGG
- Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport—SDF
- Orlando International Airport—MCO
- The Artemis program is NASA’s attempt to return man to the moon. Why is it called Artemis?
- When a pilot dies, it is said that he has “flown west.” What is the origin of this well-known expression?
- From reader Martha Lunken: True or false? The world speed record between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., in a jet-powered airplane was set in less than an hour.
- True or false? In the world of showbiz, “the big lift” referred to the famous brassiere that Howard Hughes designed for actress Jane Russell.
Illustration by John Ueland
- The U.S.S.R. introduced the Tupolev Tu–104 in 1956. America was third when it introduced the Boeing 707 in 1958.
- True. He felt a tingling in his teeth 43 seconds after releasing the bomb. This was caused by “radioactive forces interacting with his fillings.”
- On July 22, 1933, Wiley Post became the first to fly solo around the world (in Winnie Mae, a Lockheed Vega). He had been convicted of robbery in 1921 and served 14 months in prison. The Wiley Post Building houses the Oklahoma Supreme Court and was posthumously named in his honor.
- ORD used to be Orchard Field; CVG is in Covington, Kentucky; OGG is in honor of Capt. Bertram Hogg; SDF is also known as Standiford Field; MCO is on land that belonged to McCoy Air Force Base.
- In Greek mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, as in the earlier Apollo program. She is also associated with the moon.
- It was written in a letter to fellow pilots by the dying Captain Brooke Hyde-Pearson of the United States Air Mail Service. It began with, “I go west, but with cheerful heart,” and ended with, “See you all again.”
- False (but it was close). On March 6, 1990, an SR–71 “Blackbird” made the 2,299.7-statute-mile flight in 1 hour 4 minutes 20 seconds at an average speed of 2,144.8 mph, a record that still stands.
- False. Starring Montgomery Clift, The Big Lift was a realistic 1950 motion picture about the Berlin Airlift. Hughes, however, did design a bra for the starlet’s use in his film, The Outlaw.
Barry Schiff
Barry Schiff has been an aviation media consultant and technical advisor for motion pictures for more than 40 years. He is chairman of the AOPA Foundation Legacy Society.
