AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2010 - 46

PILOT BRIEFING

Say Again?

Answers from page 44

1. True. The brothers rented an automobile factory in 1909 and planned to solve the roadability problem, but the project did not proceed. 2. An SR–71 with a top speed of Mach 3.3 or 2,192 miles per hour is faster than a 30.06 bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,900 feet per second, or 1,977 miles per hour. 3. With a cash settlement from an oil drilling accident in which he was blinded in one eye. 4. The first flight of the ethanol-powered Embraer EMB 200 Ipanema took place in 2002. Certification followed in 2004. 5. d. Less than 50 feet agl. (see “Above the Spill,” page 64) 6. False. The cost of keeping the lights on all night was prohibitive. Using a system called Televox, a pilot approaching the darkened field would crank the handle of a siren in the cockpit; the siren noise was picked up on the ground and the sound waves impinged upon a device that switched on the floodlights. Do you have suggestions for aviation quiz questions that will stump other pilots? Send your questions to pilot@aopa.org.

‘American Combat Planes of the 20th Century’ by Ray Wagner Watching the development of U.S. combat aircraft over the decades appears to show a steady, almost inevitable, progression—as if fate guided each move from pistons to jets to stealth. Ray Wagner’s seminal work, American Combat Planes of the 20th Century, reveals that that impression is totally wrong—and that the truth is far richer and more fascinating. American aerospace is a saga with countless twists, turns, dead ends, and forks in the road leading from the early biplanes powered by Liberty engines to the stealthy, supersonic F–22s on the front lines today. Wagner’s comprehensive, 758-page work includes 1,700 photos and performance data on every U.S. military aircraft from World War I to Iraq. Wagner, a veteran aviation historian and archivist at the San Diego Aerospace Museum, provides much more than mere aircraft listings by putting each airplane in the context of its time, and its competition. In addition to the well-known aircraft that were built in large numbers, Wagner shows hundreds of experimental airplanes and prototypes that have been all but lost to history. The Vultee Vanguard, for example, was the most streamlined military aircraft of its time (designed by Richard W. Palmer, maker of the Hughes H–1 racer)—but the stunningly gorgeous aircraft was never produced for the U.S. military. The Martin Seamaster was a sleek, sweptwing flying boat with four jet engines that could fly 686 mph and reach altitudes of 43,000 feet; it looks futuristic today, even though it was built in the early 1950s. But the Seamaster was never produced, and the U.S. Navy abruptly canceled the program in favor of carrier-based aircraft meant to perform some of the same missions. American Combat Planes of the 20th Century—A Comprehensive Reference is a treasure. —Dave Hirschman 46 • NOVEMBER 2010

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2010