Q – U – I – Z !!!

Good evening, experts in aviation, laymen and wannabes! This is my new quiz separating dabblers form geniuses, pretenders from human oracles, the yolk form the white. Now, enough talking – go ahead and rack your brains! May the best Arthur win!

Correct answers
Too tricky it was

#1 — a cargoplane with 10 jet engines.
a – name aircraft
b – date of first flight.
Yes, the Dornier 31 on various occasions in 1967

#2 — a VTOL that actually flew. Two engines, but only one propeller, but four landing gears, is not a helicopter nor an autogyro.
a – name aircraft
b – date of first flight(s)
c – name pilot.
The Convair XFY-1 Pogo it is, first free hover August 1, 1954, first successful transition to horizontal flight November 2, 1954. The XFV-1 never flew in tailsitter-mode, only in conventional mode with those extra wheels.
Pilot was LtCol James F. Coleman, USMC
http://www.airspacemag.com/ASM/Mag/Index/1996/ON/tsit.html

#3 — from 1957 on the RCAF used two Avro Lancasters for a special mission.
a – what was that mission? launching KDA-4 Firebees for target simulation (not aerial mapping)
b – which unit did those two Lancs belong to? Central Experimental Proving Establishment / Air Armament Detachment (CEPE/AAED)
c – which serial numbers did they have? PX-851/KB-851 and PX-848/KB848
d – where are those two planes today? 848 is in Ottawa, 851 was still flying in Abbotsford, BC in 1985. Both aircraft were in fact veterans, seeing action over Germany during February, March and April 1945
e – when did the RCAF cease to exist and what is it today?The “Royal Canadian Air Force” was renamed “Air Command” and today is the “Canadian Air Division”. Decline is the fate of all big names.

#4 — what UAV holds the speed & altitude record for sustained level flight? (no, not Buran or ISS, please!)
a – designation and manufacturer of UAV
b – the record in numbers
Nono, it’s the Ryan AQM-81 Firebolt. Mach 4.3 at 103.000ft. Got an interesting propulsion system btw.

#5 — name at least eight rocket (co-)propelled manned tactical aircraft that actually flew (self-powered only!)
Me163, Me262C, Natter, J8M1, (MiG I-270 prototype), MiG-19, SR.53, S.O.9050, XF-91, (NF-104A not really tactical), (and F-84, F-100 and F-104 with JATOs). The little know SE5003 Baroudeur had no rocket. Can argue about B-47 being tactical. By self-powered I meant no towed flight. A number of those rocketplanes only flew as gliders.

#6 — name all propeller-turbine powered strategic bombers ever flown
Tu-20/95/142, XB-47D and that obscure chinese Tu-4 (in 1968 flown as HH-2, the first Chinese AEW).
Tu-96 (only one built) might also fit, but is a derivate of the Tu-95. The Tu-4LL was used as testbed for the NK-12 engines.
Remark: It is said, the Tu-95 can out-accelerate a Tornado F.3 at high altitudes!

#7 — name a forktail twin-turbine powered tandem-prop with fixed landing gear
The Schweizer RU-38B. Has two Rolls Royce Allison 250-B17F. (The RU-38A has two Continental GIO-550A).

#8 — name first aircraft flown with forward-swept wings
Tja, looks like I can’t fool you, Arthur! It was the prototype of the Cornelius XFG-1, flown in summer 1941 by one Alexander Papana and powered by a small Menasco engine (was that a “military” aircraft?). And I have to admit my sources about that are dodgy. Otherwise the Junkers Ju287V-1 is correct, maiden flight August 16th, 1944. The first “production” XFG-1 (only two built) made its first hop about eight month later. Regarding gliders: In my mind there is a picture of an assault glider with FSW, but I just can’t remember. The first sports-glider with FSW was the Ka-2 “Rhönschwalbe” in 1956 (not military).

#9 — name the first aircraft with electrical “fly-by-wire” controls
No, it was a Heinkel He111 modified by Siemens and flown in 1941.

#10 — the RN uses the Sea King for AWACS/AEW duties quite some time now. But the Sea King was/is not the only helicopter destined for that role. Name three other helicopters used for the same mission.
I was kind and wanted only three. But there’s quite a couple: Russian Ka-31, Czech Mi-17Z-2, Bulgarian Ka-25, Kaman SH-2E, YSH-2F, HH-2D, NUH-2C, the strange NUH-20 and the bignose Sikorsky HR2S-1W Mohave. The Cougar with the Horizon is not AEW, Ka-27 is ASW.

#11 — what was “Operation Damon”?
Yepyep. Good old imperialistic suppression of colonial uprising around Aden. Sea Vixens from the Centaur. Been there with a sailing yacht couple of years ago.

#12 — I’m looking for a Texan aviation company [a – WHICH COMPANY? WHERE WAS/IS IT LOCATED?] that started business after the war from the local remains of another quite well known aircraft company [b – WHICH COMPANY?] by building venetian blind clips, mailboxes and three-seat water-bicycles, later became part of one of the largest U.S. business conglomerates (was e.g. huge in the field of Texan beef) [c – NAME IT! WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE HEAD OF THAT CONGLOMERATE?] and is now part of another big U.S. defense contractor [d – NAME THAT CONTRACTOR! HOW DID THAT COME?]. They also built the first operationally used primary jet trainer for the U.S.Navy [E – NAME THAT PLANE PLUS THE DATE OF THE FIRST FLIGHT].
Temco — Texas Engineering and Manufacturing Company (founded by R.McCulloch, H.L.Howard). Built from what was left from the local North American Aviation outfit at Greenville, TX (not Grand Prairie, that’s on the other side of Dallas). Besides that wacky stuff mentioned above they rebuilt old bombers into VIP-transports for the presidents of Chile and Brazil. In 1959 sucked up by the Ling empire. Quite interesting man btw. Merged into LTV in 1961. After much spinning and merging (and the Carlisle intermezzo) parts are with Northrop-Grumman today, but the original Greenville factory is HQ and main manufacturing site of L-3 Communications Integrated Sytems. And the plane was the TT-1 Pinto of course, 14 built.