> > > > > > > . Q . U . I . Z . < < < < < < <

Have fun, answers will be forthcoming when i feel like it.

A first round of answers before this thread gets taken over by people who don’t know they can start threads of themselves…
Going green already, for the answers given more than two hours after putting up this quiz
The final round… Purple. You guys are getting good at this!

-1-
What was the (main) role of the following aircraft during the Vietnam war?
a) O-2B
Psy-ops, Phantom scores with knowing the Bullsh!t Bomber.
b) Mi-6
Score one for Ken/Flankerman. The North Vietnamese used Mi-6es to haul their fighters from the airbases to off-site maintenance and dispersal areas.
c) Sabre Mk. 32
PII with CAP is correct, the Australians had a squadron of these at Udon to defend the US airbases in Thailand from Vietnamese air attacks.
d) TF-9J
Yes, the Marines used a number of these with H&MS-13 from Da Nang as fast-FAC aircraft. They were replaced in this role by TA-4F’s in 1967. PII again.
e) T-39
Steve scores on this one. The Sabreliners were tasked with hauling high-priority cargo for the staff, usually of an intell nature. Documents, an occasional high-ranking POW, and probably most important: bringing RF-101 or RF-4 imagery from field airbases to the centres where those pics were needed. All the high-priority stuff.
f) SP-5B Marlin
SOC has it – the Marlin was tasked with the Market Time patrol of South Vietnam’s coastal waters. The fear of course being that the VC or NVA sailed in support either from North Vietnam or Cambodia.
g) NC-123K
Again PII, this time finding the submunition-dropping job of the NC-123K. Only used on an experimental basis over the Ho Chi Minh trail for a relatively short time, they did roughly the same as an MW-1 equipped Tornado: dump lots of small things that go boom.

-2-
a) Which other American armed services than the Navy used the Lockheed Neptune?
b) What were their designations?
c) What role did they have
Both Dis and SOC here: the USAF operated seven P2V-7U on loan from the USN as RB-69As, appearantly on behalf of the CIA in the mid-to-late 1950s. These were equipped with for that time pretty advanced radar and ELINT gear, but they were soon handed back to the USN when more modern (and more USAF-style) recce gear became available.
The US Army operated AP-2Es in Vietnam for a number of electronic tasks: ELINT/SIGINT, relays and Igloo White people sniffing.

-3-
What was the first conflict in which armed helicopters were used in a large scale, both as separate attack vehicles as for escort and patrol duties? If you’re nice, you can name a few of the types involved.
The French in Algeria, 1954-1962. H-21s were used as armed transports, Alouette IIs for scouting and handgrenade-dropping, and H-34s were the true gunships called ‘Pirate’. They often carried incredible weapon loads: apart from the standard 20mm and .50 guns in the doors (the 20mm ones being old German MG151 guns), they carried sometimes up to five 7-round rocket pods, or clustered and reloadable (in flight) Bazookas. In the final years 1960-1962, Alouette IIIs with AS-11 missiles added some sort of PGM capability too.

-4-
What production aircraft were based on the following prototypes:
a) Tu-98 (two answers)
SOC is now completely right with the Tu-128 FIDDLER, and the 105 aka Tu-22 BLINDER .
b) Be-14
Ken more or less has got this one right. The Be-14 was the prototype for a SAR variant of the Be-12. A SAR variant based on the Be-14 was taken in production and entered service, but this got the designation Be-12PS
c) XF-88
The one guy who gets paid to do this stuff again, Sean with the F-101 Voodoo.
d) N156 (two answers)
Phantom’s got ’em: the T-38 and the F-5.
e) Saab 210
Glad to see new people joining in in these bizarre and pedant showoff-contests of obscure aviation trivia. Castor has this one right, the Saab 210 was the Lilldraken, a scaled-down testbed for the Draken’s double-delta wing.

-5-
What countries operate the B747 in their military?
The list is already pretty much complete now:
Iran (tanker + transport), US (E-4, C-19, VC25, YAL-1) and Japan (VVIP) are the only ones operating military-registred Jumbos. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have civil-registred machines operating with their governments on VVIP and transport duties. The UAE one is particularly nice: it’s a short 747SP with loads of bulges and antenna.

-6-
Which fighter had two engines fed by three intakes?
I knew i should have said ‘non-STOVL/VTOL jet. But the F-35B is correct.
I’ll give this one away then: it was the La-200B. It had two staggered jet engines, fed by three intakes fit to the sides and bottom of the radome. It was one of the early Soviet attempts to come to a long-ranged all-weather interceptor, roughly in the same category as the F-89. Only one prototype was built.

-7-
Name an aircraft with counter-rotating props that actually saw combat.
Yes, the counter-rotating Seafires flew over Korea with the RN. There was another one, an aircraft which only existed in counter-rotating configuration. Not that it does away with SOC’s point here :p
Distiller’s Westland Wyvern during the Suez crisis was the one i was looking for.
Bonus point for Flood mentioning the Shack, dropping bombs during the Borneo crisis
Sycamore, welcome to the board and don’t worry about being pedantic – these quizzes are the perfect excuse for that 😉 While you are actually right, me being the quizhost i like to use my prerogative power to ignore your comment nevertheless 😉 I’m afraid it would include a few WW1 aircraft as well, and i did mean those aircraft with one shaft driving props going both ways. Your quiz (hint! hint!), your droit divin to interpret the rules as you go 😀

-8-
Name one (former) USAF base or base with a very significant USAF presence in the following countries:
a) Portugal
Lajes it is, it’s the main stopover point for US-Middle East flights for tactical aircraft. No more Israeli F-16s on delivery via Ramstein, unfortunately…
b) The Netherlands
Soesterberg it is, with an E though (‘berg’ means mountain which there are of course plenty in the Netherlands, ‘burg’ is for castle of which there are even more.
c) Belgium
Givin’ it away: it’s Chievres. For support of SHAPE (Supreme HQ Allied Powers Europe, or the continental NATO HQ), until shortly was a USAF C-9 on permanent detachment, and still present is a bunch of UH-60s, some of which fitted with really comfy leather seats with cupholders.
d) Denmark
Thule it is, obviously. As independent(ish) as Greenland is now, it definately wasn’t when the base was built. It’s unfortunate the under-ice missile base to the West of Thule was never completed, this would have been an interesting site on it’s own.
e) Turkey
Incirlik is indeed the USAF’s main stronghold in Turkey.
f) Lybia
Currently known as Okba Bin Nafi, Wheelus AFB is correct.
g) New Zealand
Christchurch it is, as the main support base for US ops over Antarctica. They must have seen Mulder and Scully seen pass by dozens of times 😀

-9-
a) In what fiscal year were the final F-51 serial numbers allocated?
SOC has got it – the highest Mustang-serials were issued in 1972, comfortably between a batch of F-111Fs and YF-16 prototypes.
b) In what fiscal year were the final B-26 serial numbers allocated?
1964 it was, a batch of B-26K Counter Invaders destined for SE Asia. There’s not as much contrast with their neighbouring serials though, as those were Hercs.

-10-
Name three Luftwaffe training aircraft built in Germany
The Alpha Jet is one i was looking for, and the RFB Fantrainer was the experimental one i was looking for – it did get to carry a German cross inside a four-digit number, so it was definately part of the Luftwaffe, albeit of the test fleet.
The other two i was looking for were brought to us by Kenneth. The Piaggo P149D proptrainer and CM170 Magister screechtrainer were both built under licence in Germany a long, long time ago.

-11-
Second-hand aircraft are pretty common with many airforces, and sometimes aircraft even get to be third-hand. Name the two previous owners for the following aircraft (note: not every aircraft of said type in said airforce is necessarily third-hand or even more, but some definately are).
a) South Korean F-5A
Dis again. During the Vietnam War, the Koreans donated 36 of their F-5A’s to the VNAF to counter the North. When the North finally overran South Vietnam, 19 of the self-evacuated F-5s were given to the South Koreans. A few of these were of the original batch the RoK had given to VN, so they were third-hand aircraft: RoK -> RVN -> RoK
b) Honduran F-86K
Correctamundo for Distiller. German F-86K’s went to Venezuela, some of which then went to Honduras again.
c) Greek F-5A
From Iran, to Jordan, to Greece. Pretty well-known i guess.
d) Yugoslav Sabre Mk.4
No quiz would be complete without Flood’s insight into obscurity: ex-RAF Sabres went to Italy, and then went on to Yugoslavia. And if three owners wasn’t enough, some of these Yugoslav Sabres finally ended their careers in Honduras.
e) Turkish CF-104
Yes, Canada handed over a number of it’s CF-104s to Norway, which then found their way to Turkey when the Norwegians retired its Zippers.
f) Polish MiG-29s (two possible answers).
The East German -> German -> Polish MiG-29s are indeed third-hand, and of course the Czechoslovakia -> Czech Republic -> Poland ones.

-12-
What was the first Soviet jet aircraft to be refuelled during flight?
You’re sure about the Yak-15 Dis? I was thinking about another one, but the Yak-15 would preceed that.

The pic with the Tu-2 suckling a Yak-15 definately preceeds my Tu-4/Yak-25E and Tu-4/MiG-15 info, so you’ve got this one. And my traditional quiz-cockup 😉

-13-
In what role is/was the HS125/Bae125 used by the following airforces?
Almost aced by Foghorn Leghorn….
a) USAF
SOC gots it, they checked airfield/base/port facilities like ILS and so on. They replaced the last C-140s in this role, but only served as such for a very short time. The C-29s now are with the FAA, but they are called BAe-125 again.
b) RoKAF
SIGINT/ELINT it is, they have a nice big bathtub on their already fat bellies.
c) JASDF
Known as U-125, these are SAR birds. Dropping rafts and flares, directing helos, stuff like that. A bit like the USCG HU-25As
d) RAF
Indeed, hauling people around which are too important for a Hercules or don’t need to go far enough to get a VC-10 or Tristar out.

-14-
What was the E-5, and for what was it used?
The Windecker YE-5 Eagle was the one i was looking for. It was bought as an off-the-shelf composite light aircraft to check the stealth characteristics. Unfortunately, the most stunning bit of information the tests with 73-1653 showed was that while the composite airframe didn’t show up on radar, metal parts like the engine did. These had to be shielded somehow, and they didn’t yet know how to do this back in the mid-1970s.

-15-
Name three aircraft used specifically for zero-G tests, and their operators.
Phantom got one with NASA’s soon to be retired B707 Vomit Comet. Two more to go.
Is there still a NKC-135 in service as a Zero-G bird? Didn’t know that. But the Il-76 variant (actually the Il-76MDK, two of which are based at Chkalovsky) is definately correct.
With the Caravelle retired for quite some time now, ESA’s A300B as mentioned by Steve was the other one i was looking for. I thought it was based at Toulouse rather than Mérignac, but i could well be wrong. And it has indeed been rented out for a porn flic – which is interesting enough IMHO, since neither the Soviets nor NASA did ever disclose anything about any possible experiments with sexual intercourse in zero G. Even though that’s just the thing we’ve all been wondering about (well, i know i have ever ever since i experienced zero G in a Polish glider).