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Friday 4th July 2008
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Brainteasers Interactive Quiz #42:
Aviation History

Most AVweb Brainteasers have focused on pilot knowledge that's important for safe, efficient, and legal operation of aircraft. This one is a bit different. Knowledge of aviation history isn't necessary for a pilot to safely, efficiently, and legally fly in today's airspace, but a knowledge of the contributions of aviators in years gone by is necessary for us to truly appreciate our ability to take to the skies in the 21st century. Our debt to our predecessors can only be paid if we continue their quest for knowledge and flying experience.

by Irv Siegel

Most of the information in this quiz was obtained from Aviation History by Anne Millbrooke, ISBN 0-88487-235-1.

1. What famous American witnessed the first public manned flight of an
a. Benjamin Franklin
aircraft?


b. Alexander Graham Bell
c. Theodore Roosevelt
d. Thomas Edison
e. John Deakin
2. On 17 December, 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright flew an airplane in manned,
Each made a second flight that morning. What was the combined total flight time
a. 59 seconds
b. 1 minute and 37 seconds
c. 5 minutes and 12 seconds
d. 18 minutes and 39 seconds
flight and thus was the first airplane pilot. Wilbur followed within the hour.
flights were well documented and verified at the time. Orville made the first
of all four flights?


powered, controlled and sustained flights of a heavier-than-air aircraft. The
3. Who made the first airplane flight in Europe?
a. Alberto Santos-Dumont
b. Henry Farman
c. Louis Blériot
d. Harry Ferguson
4. Who obtained pilot license #1 issued by the Aero Club of America in 1910?
a. Glenn Curtiss
b. Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm
c. Louis Paulham
d. Orville Wright
e. Wilbur Wright
5. She was the fourth woman in the United States to earn a pilot's license.
She, along with her brother and sister, founded a flying school, but she did not
teach. She raised money by stunt flying. As part of the Montana State Fair in
1913, she became the first female pilot to carry U.S. mail. A few years later,
25,000 people attended one of her acrobatic shows in Tokyo. She and her siblings
a. Mickie Akeley
b. Hart O. Berg
c. Harriet Quimby
d. Katherine Stinson
e. Amelia Earhart
were part Cherokee Indian. She was

6. At sixteen years old, she earned national recognition as the youngest
Amelia Earhart. Along with fellow female flyer Bobbi Trout, she set a women's
Center in April, 2001 to film part of what will become a documentary on the
General Aviation Transportation Experiments. She is


a. Beryl Markham
altitude for women, reaching 27,418' in 1930. She visited NASA Langley Research
aviators to accomplish aerial refueling. She also set records for highest
b. Elinor Smith
c. Baroness Raymonde de la Roche
d. Tina Gonsalves
e. Ellen Church
endurance record of forty-two hours, and in 1929 the two were the first female
future of aviation, and flew a modified four passenger aircraft fitted with
pilot to receive an official pilot's license, one signed by Orville Wright. Two
years later she was voted "Best Female Pilot" by her peers, including
7. Who won the Orteig Prize?
a. Henry Farman
b. Louis Blériot
c. Glenn Curtiss
d. Charles Lindbergh
e. Jimmy Doolittle
8. Football coach Knute Rockne died in an airline crash on 31 March, 1931 on
a. Boeing 247
b. Douglas DC-2
c. Douglas DC-3
d. Lockheed 10 Electra
e. Fokker F-10A Trimotor
9. He went for his first airplane ride in a war-surplus Curtiss Jenny. He
Business Aircraft Association presented him its meritorious service award for
Circus, and for Fairchild Aerial Surveys. He became an airmail pilot and flew
Hall of Fame and he received the Distinguished Service Award from the FAA. He
a. Frederick B. Rentshler
aiding business aviation and, in 1983, the National Aeronautic Association named
b. Herbert Morrison
c. Elrey B. Jeppesen
d. Harold Gatty
for Varney, Boeing Air Transport, and United Air Lines. In 1965 the National
him an elder statesman of aviation. He was inducted into the National Aviation
learned to fly while a teenager. Instead of a high school diploma, he earned a
pilot's license. It was signed by Orville Wright. He flew with Rankin's Flying
was

10. Who wrote the following words? "When the night is very fine and you
a. Glenn Curtis
are at the stick of your ship, you half forget yourself and bit by bit the plane
b. Charles Lindbergh
begins to tilt on the left. Pretty soon, while you still imagine yourself in
c. Amelia Earhart
d. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
e. Beryl Markham
fishing-fleets in mid-Sahara. What --- ? Of course! You smile at the way your
into place. You have hooked that particular constellation back in the panoply
mind has wandered and you bring the ship back to plumb again. The village slips
out of which it had fallen. Village? Yes, village of stars."


plumb, you see the lights of a village under your right wing. There are no
villages in the desert. A fishing-fleet in mid-ocean, then? There are no