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Understanding Aircraft: A Comprehensive Quiz

Test your knowledge of aircraft with this engaging quiz covering various aspects including types, terminology, and historical facts.

1 A model aircraft is a small unmanned type made to fly for fun, for static display, for aerodynamic research (cf ________) or for other purposes.

2 Similarly, ________ stands for short take off and landing.

3 The initialism ________ (vertical take off and landing) is applied to aircraft that can take off and land vertically.

4 The motorjet was a very early design which used a piston engine in place of the combustion chamber, similar to a ________ piston engine except that the thrust is derived from the turbine instead of the crankshaft.

5 They are characterized by one or more large gasbags or canopies, filled with a relatively low density gas such as ________, hydrogen or hot air, which is less dense than the surrounding air.

6 Tiltrotor aircraft (such as the ________) have their rotors horizontal for vertical flight, and pivot the rotors vertically like a propeller for forward flight.

7 An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported by the ________, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet.

8 Some examples of both ________ and float planes are amphibious, being able to take off from and alight on both land and water.

9 Use of a turbine is not absolutely necessary: other designs include the crude pulse jet, high-speed ________ and the still-experimental supersonic-combustion ramjet or scramjet.

10 Small hot air balloons called sky lanterns date back to the 3rd century BC, and were only the second type of aircraft to fly, the first being ________.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • only one of the twenty-five aircraft operated by Invicta International Airlines was a jet, a Boeing 720B.
  • one of the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic was the Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boat, which went on to serve in the Luftwaffe in WWII.
  • during World War II, No. 233 Squadron RAF (pictured) lost four aircraft out of a total of twenty-four supply flights flown at the end of D-Day, June 6, 1944.
  • passengers aboard JetBlue Airways Flight 292 were able to watch their own malfunctioning aircraft circle Los Angeles International Airport on the satellite television screens at each seat until the flight crew disabled the system in preparation for the aircraft's successful emergency landing.
  • the Air Battle of El Mansoura in the Yom Kippur War involved nearly 180 aircraft in a continuous engagement lasting 53 minutes.
  • two Beagle B.206 aircraft were built for evaluation by the UK Ministry of Aviation, resulting in an order for twenty aircraft for the Royal Air Force.
  • the principles of bird flight are the same as used in aircraft, with lift being provided by an aerofoil.
  • the Percival Petrel, a twin-engine, low-wing monoplane with a tailwheel undercarriage, was used as a British communications aircraft in World War II.
  • Walchand Hirachand established India’s first shipyard, first aircraft factory and its first car factory.
  • Tung Hua Lin led a team that designed and built China's first twin-engine aircraft in a cave to avoid detection by the Japanese during World War II.
  • Bobbi Trout became the first woman to fly an aircraft all night and broke the previous women's solo endurance record in a February 10, 1929, flight.
  • Aeroplanes Voisin, a major French aircraft manufacturer during World War I, was dissolved after the war when its cofounder Gabriel Voisin became more interested in designing automobiles than planes.
  • Wing Commander George H. Stainforth AFC RAF was the first man to exceed 400 mph in an aircraft.
  • Langley Park makes Perth the only city in the world where aircraft can land in the central business district.
  • Reeve Aleutian Airways was started with a down payment of $3,000 on one DC-3 aircraft, and that Robert Campbell Reeve, the founder, earned enough money in 53 days to purchase the aircraft outright and buy another three aircraft.
  • Theo Osterkamp was the first German reconnaissance pilot to fly a land-based aircraft to England during World War I.
  • Salmson 2, along with the Breguet 14, was the main reconnaissance aircraft of the French army in the First World War.
  • Mexican pilot Alberto Braniff was the first pilot to fly a plane over Mexico City.