193 Fun Facts About Aviation

Who is credited with the first controlled, sustained flight in a heavier-than-air aircraft?

Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft, the Wright Flyer, on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Which airliner, the only full-length double-deck jet ever built, entered service in 2007?

The Airbus A380 seats 525 in a typical layout and is certified for up to 853; Airbus ended production in 2021.

Of the four fundamental forces of flight, which acts opposite to thrust, balancing it in steady level flight?

Drag opposes thrust; in steady level flight the four forces pair off, thrust against drag and lift against weight.

Which airport was the world's busiest by passenger traffic in 2024?

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta handled about 108 million passengers in 2024, ranking first in the world; it is the primary hub of Delta Air Lines.

Who was the first woman to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean?

Amelia Earhart flew solo and nonstop from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland on May 20-21, 1932, the first woman to cross the Atlantic alone.

Which hinged surfaces on the trailing edge of each wing work in opposition to control an aircraft's roll?

Ailerons move in opposite directions to roll the aircraft around its longitudinal axis, tilting the lift vector to change its path.

Besides Newton's laws, which principle tying fast airflow to low pressure is used to explain lift?

Bernoulli's Principle links faster flow to lower pressure; the 'equal transit time' version taught in schools is false, since air over the wing arrives well before air underneath.

Which engineer designed the first successful single-main-rotor helicopter with a tail rotor for anti-torque?

Igor Sikorsky's VS-300 flew tethered on 14 September 1939 and made its first free flight on 13 May 1940, establishing the single-main-rotor, tail-rotor layout most helicopters use.

Which experimental German aircraft was the first in the world to fly on turbojet power, in August 1939?

The Heinkel He 178, flown by test pilot Erich Warsitz on 27 August 1939, was the first aircraft to fly on turbojet power; the sole airframe was destroyed in a 1943 Berlin air raid.

Which test pilot first officially exceeded the speed of sound in level flight, on 14 October 1947?

Chuck Yeager took the experimental Bell X-1 to Mach 1.05 at 45,000 feet, and collected both the Collier and Mackay trophies the following year.

Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight, the first nonstop from New York across the Atlantic, ended in which city?

Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis outside Paris on 21 May 1927, about 33.5 hours and 3,600 miles after leaving New York; it was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic by air.

Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner, was withdrawn from service in which year?

Concorde entered service in January 1976 and was retired in 2003: Air France stopped in May, and British Airways flew the final commercial flight on 24 October 2003.

What colour are aircraft 'black boxes' actually required to be?

Flight recorders are painted bright orange so investigators can spot them among wreckage and underwater; the 'black box' name is a misnomer.

Which airliner, first flown in February 1969, was the first to be called a jumbo jet?

It earned the nickname as the world's first wide-body airliner, and was certified in December of the same year.

The Wright Flyer's first flight on December 17, 1903 lasted how long?

Orville Wright's first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet into a strong headwind; the brothers made three more flights that day, the last lasting 59 seconds.

Before building airplanes, the Wright brothers ran what kind of business in Dayton, Ohio?

A printing and bicycle shop gave the brothers their mechanical skills, and their belief that an unstable machine could be balanced with practice came from riding and repairing bikes.

How did the Wrights decide who would attempt the first powered flight, on December 14, 1903?

Wilbur won, stalled after three seconds and damaged the Flyer, so it was Orville's turn three days later.

What is the long, thin main body of an airplane called?

The fuselage is the aircraft's central body, from the French fuselé, 'spindle-shaped'; it joins the wings and tail and carries the crew, payload and systems.

Which control surface, mounted on the tail fin, controls an aircraft's yaw?

The horizontal stabilizer carries the elevators, which handle pitch; the ailerons on the wings handle roll.

On commercial flights, cabin pressure is kept equivalent to an altitude no higher than what?

Airworthiness rules cap cabin altitude at 8,000 feet at the aircraft's maximum cruising altitude; newer jets such as the Boeing 787 hold the cabin nearer 6,000 feet for comfort.

Which airliner, the first commercial jet, was grounded in 1954 after metal-fatigue crashes?

The de Havilland Comet, in service from 1952, was grounded in 1954 after two broke up in flight; fatigue cracks had started at the corners of square cut-outs in the pressurised fuselage.

Which airline was the launch customer whose demands produced the Boeing 747?

Pan Am ordered 25 in April 1966 and flew the first one in January 1970.

Why does the Boeing 747 have its famous 'hump'?

Boeing expected supersonic jets to make the 747 obsolete as a passenger plane, so it was designed to convert easily to a freighter.

The 747 was built near which Washington city, in the world's largest building by volume?

Boeing assembled every 747 at its Everett, Washington plant, the world's largest building by volume; the last of 1,574 was delivered to Atlas Air in January 2023.

How many Concordes were built in total?

Air France and British Airways got seven each; eighteen of the twenty survive in museums.

Concorde's droop nose was there for what reason?

The nose was lowered so pilots could see the runway over the long delta wing on approach.

Which family of narrow-body jets is the best-selling airliner ever built?

The Airbus A320 family overtook the Boeing 737 in total orders in October 2019; introduced in 1988, it pioneered digital fly-by-wire and side-stick controls in airliners.

Which German airline was the first to put the Boeing 737 into service, in 1968?

Lufthansa was the 737's launch customer, ordering 21 of the 737-100 in 1965 as the first non-US airline to launch a Boeing jet, and put it into service in February 1968.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was the first airliner to have an airframe made mainly from what?

Its fuselage is built from one-piece composite barrel sections instead of riveted aluminium sheets, part of a claimed 20 percent fuel saving over the 767.

The Antonov An-225 Mriya, the heaviest aircraft ever built, was originally designed to carry what?

The An-225 was built in 1988 to carry the Buran space shuttle and Energia rocket parts on its back; the only one completed was destroyed at Hostomel during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Howard Hughes's 'Spruce Goose' was mostly made of which wood?

Wartime aluminium restrictions forced the wooden build; it flew exactly once, on November 2, 1947, and Hughes hated the nickname.

How many times did the Spruce Goose fly?

The H-4 Hercules flew once, on November 2, 1947, about a mile at 70 feet over Long Beach harbor; it now lives at the Evergreen museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

Strictly speaking, what does the designation 'Air Force One' refer to?

The call sign dates from 1954, after an Eastern Air Lines flight with a similar number crossed paths with Eisenhower's plane.

Which designer created the blue-and-white Air Force One livery introduced in 1962?

Raymond Loewy, the industrial designer behind the Lucky Strike pack and Studebaker Avanti, created the livery for SAM 26000, the Boeing 707 delivered in 1962 that later carried Kennedy's body home from Dallas.

Which Australian scientist conceived the flight recorder in 1953?

David Warren of Melbourne's Aeronautical Research Laboratories proposed a 'flight memory unit' in 1953 after the Comet crashes; authorities ignored it until a British official visited his lab in 1958.

Which RAF officer patented his turbojet engine design in January 1930?

Frank Whittle, then an RAF pilot officer, filed his turbojet patent on 16 January 1930; his Power Jets W.1 engine powered the Gloster E.28/39 on its first flight in May 1941.

What are contrails made of?

Ice crystals: water vapour in the exhaust freezes almost instantly in the cold air at cruising altitude.

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River after hitting what?

All 155 on board survived what an NTSB official called 'the most successful ditching in aviation history'.

Safety rules require a fully loaded airliner be evacuated in how long, even with half the exits blocked?

Certification demands a full evacuation in 90 seconds using only half the exits, in darkness; any exit too high to jump from safely must have an automatic inflatable slide.

Which four-seat light aircraft, first delivered in 1956, has been built more than any other?

The Cessna 172 Skyhawk, with more than 44,000 built since 1956, is the most-produced aircraft in history; over 1,400 were sold in its first full year alone.

Who set a paper-airplane time-aloft world record of 29.2 seconds in Hiroshima in 2010?

Takuo Toda, chairman of the Japan Origami Airplane Association, kept his plane aloft for 29.2 seconds in Hiroshima on 19 December 2010, beating his own 2009 mark of 27.9 seconds.

Which company built the first gyroscopic autopilot for aircraft, in 1912?

Lawrence Sperry demonstrated it in Paris in 1914 by flying with his hands raised where the crowd could see them.

Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 while attempting what?

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished near Howland Island on July 2, 1937, during an attempted flight around the world along the equator; she was declared dead in January 1939.

William E. Boeing set up shop in Seattle in 1916 under what original name?

Boeing incorporated Pacific Aero Products Co. on July 15, 1916 and renamed it the Boeing Airplane Company a year later; its first product was the B&W seaplane built with Conrad Westervelt.

Before he built airplanes, William Boeing made his fortune in which industry?

He dropped out of Yale in 1903 to buy timberland around Grays Harbor, Washington, and shipped wood east through the new Panama Canal.

A 1934 law separating plane makers from air transport split Boeing's holding company and created which airline?

The same break-up spun off United Aircraft, which later became United Technologies.

Which rival planemaker did Boeing absorb on August 1, 1997?

Boeing completed its roughly $13 billion stock takeover of McDonnell Douglas on August 1, 1997 after months of European Commission scrutiny; critics later blamed the culture clash for the 737 MAX crisis.

Where did Boeing move its corporate headquarters in 2022?

Boeing announced in May 2022 that its headquarters would move from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, close to the Pentagon and its defense customers; it had left Seattle for Chicago in 2001.

Boeing's 1960 purchase of Vertol Aircraft Corporation took it into which line of business?

Vertol was then the largest independent maker of rotorcraft; the Chinook still carries the Boeing Vertol lineage.

Test pilot Tex Johnston famously did what with the 707 prototype over Lake Washington in 1955?

The stunt, in front of airline executives at Seafair, is still one of the most replayed moments in airliner history.

Which engine maker's JT3 turbojets powered the first Boeing 707s?

The first 707-120s used four Pratt & Whitney JT3C turbojets, civil versions of the military J57; Rolls-Royce Conway turbofans came later on the 707-420 built for BOAC.

Who led the design team for the 747, after leaving the 737 program in 1965?

Joe Sutter's 747 team, nicknamed 'the Incredibles', took the jumbo from go-ahead in April 1966 to rollout in September 1968, about 29 months.

The name 'Flying Fortress' for the B-17 was coined by whom?

Seattle Times reporter Richard Williams, seeing the machine guns bristling from the prototype in July 1935, wrote '15-ton flying fortress' in a photo caption; Boeing quickly trademarked the name.

Why did Boeing's Model 299 lose the 1935 Army bomber contract despite outperforming its rivals?

The crash was traced to a control gust lock left engaged, and the response, a written pre-flight checklist, became standard practice across aviation.

In 2018 Boeing opened its first European factory in which city?

Boeing Sheffield, opened in October 2018 to machine actuation parts for the 737 and 767, sits beside the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in a city better known for steel.

Spirit AeroSystems was created in 2005 when Boeing spun off its division in which city?

Boeing sold its Wichita, Kansas fuselage division to Onex in 2005, creating Spirit AeroSystems, which went on to build the entire 737 fuselage; Boeing agreed to buy it back in July 2024.

The number 72 in the ATR 72's name comes from what?

The Franco-Italian ATR 72 is named for its typical seating capacity of about 72 passengers, just as the smaller ATR 42 is named for its roughly 42 seats.

Which airline fragmented into roughly 400 regional carriers in 1992?

Aeroflot, the Soviet state airline and once the world's largest, was broken into some 400 regional carriers nicknamed 'Babyflots' after the USSR dissolved at the end of 1991.

What is the British English term for a jet engine's afterburner?

British engineers call the afterburner 'reheat', because it reheats the turbine exhaust by burning extra fuel; engines are said to run 'wet' with reheat and 'dry' without.

In an emergency, who retains final authority for an aircraft's safe operation?

Under FAR 91.3 the pilot in command is directly responsible for, and the final authority on, the aircraft's operation, and may deviate from any rule to the extent an emergency requires.

Airbus's headquarters are legally registered in which Dutch city?

Airbus SE is a European company registered in Leiden, in the Netherlands, though its head office and day-to-day management sit in Blagnac, near Toulouse.

Airbus Industrie was formally established as a consortium in which year?

Airbus Industrie was set up as a French-German economic interest grouping on 18 December 1970 to build the A300; Spain's CASA joined in 1971 and British Aerospace in 1979.

Which aircraft was the world's first twin-engine, wide-body airliner?

The Airbus A300 was the first twin-engine wide-body airliner; the prototype first flew on 28 October 1972 and Air France put it into service in May 1974.

Which country withdrew from the A300 project on 10 April 1969?

The United Kingdom pulled government funding from the A300 on 10 April 1969, though Hawker Siddeley stayed on privately to build the wings; France and West Germany signed a firm agreement the next month.

The Airbus A340 quadjet was launched together with which twin-engined sibling in June 1987?

The A330 twin and A340 quadjet were launched together in June 1987 and share the same fuselage, wing structure and flight deck; the A340 flew first, in October 1991.

Which two airlines were launch customers for the Airbus A340 in March 1993?

Lufthansa took the A340-200 and Air France the A340-300, both entering service in March 1993; the A340-300 had first flown on 25 October 1991.

Which engine exclusively powers the Airbus A350?

Rolls-Royce's Trent XWB is the only engine offered on the A350; XWB stands for 'extra wide body', the clean-sheet design Airbus adopted in 2006 after airlines rejected the original A330-based proposal.

The Airbus A350 was the first Airbus aircraft largely made of what?

The prototype first flew from Toulouse on 14 June 2013.

What aging aircraft did the Airbus Beluga replace for hauling wings and fuselages?

Airbus's A300-600ST Beluga replaced its four Super Guppies, converted Boeing Stratocruisers, from 1995; five Belugas were built to link the company's dispersed European factories.

Under which 1944 treaty must all civil aircraft be registered with a national authority?

The Chicago Convention of 1944, which also created ICAO, requires every civil aircraft to carry the nationality and registration marks of one state; an aircraft can be registered in only one jurisdiction at a time.

What shape do supersonic airfoils tend toward compared with subsonic ones?

Supersonic airfoils are slimmer, with thin sections and sharp leading edges, to reduce wave drag; subsonic wings keep thicker, rounded leading edges for lift at low speed.

What was the world's first commercial passenger airline?

DELAG, founded in Frankfurt in November 1909, was the first airline, flying Zeppelin airships on sightseeing and inter-city trips and carrying over 10,000 fare-paying passengers by mid-1914.

Which is one of the three largest airline alliances?

Star Alliance, founded in May 1997 by five airlines including Lufthansa and United, was the first global airline alliance; the other two majors are SkyTeam and Oneworld.

Alberto Santos-Dumont won the Deutsch prize in 1901 by flying his airship around what?

On 19 October 1901 his airship No. 6 flew from Saint-Cloud, rounded the Eiffel Tower and returned in about half an hour, winning the 100,000-franc Deutsch de la Meurthe prize.

Santos-Dumont's 14-bis aircraft was nicknamed what?

The 14-bis, called the Oiseau de proie or 'bird of prey', flew about 60 metres at Bagatelle in Paris on 23 October 1906, the first officially observed powered flight in Europe.

Aloha Airlines Flight 243 in 1988 lost part of its fuselage roof; on which island did it land safely?

The Boeing 737 made an emergency landing at Kahului Airport on Maui on 28 April 1988; the only fatality was flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing, swept out when the roof tore away.

Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport opened in 1916 as what?

Schiphol opened on 16 September 1916 as a military airbase for the Dutch army, on land reclaimed from the Haarlemmermeer lake; civilian flights began in 1920.

Which engineer invented the autogiro, first flying one in January 1923?

Juan de la Cierva's C.4 autogiro flew at Getafe near Madrid on 9 January 1923; its freely spinning, unpowered rotor was the forerunner of the helicopter's articulated rotor.

Which aircraft has been in continuous production longer than any other in history?

The Beechcraft Bonanza has been built continuously since 1947, longer than any other aircraft; its distinctive V-tail versions were made until 1982, and more than 17,000 Bonanzas have been built.

Candy-dropping aircraft during the Berlin Airlift were dubbed what?

Berliners called the Airlift planes Rosinenbomber, 'raisin bombers', after pilot Gail Halvorsen began dropping sweets on tiny parachutes in 1948, an effort known as Operation Little Vittles.

Where did Bessie Coleman have to go to attend flight school?

Bessie Coleman learned French and went to the Caudron Brothers' school at Le Crotoy in France, earning her licence in June 1921, because no U.S. school would train a Black woman.

Which flight demonstration squadron is the second-oldest formal aerobatic team in the world?

The Blue Angels were formed in 1946, making them the second-oldest formal aerobatic team after France's Patrouille de France, whose origins date from 1931.

The cancelled Boeing 2707 supersonic airliner was designed to cruise at roughly what speed?

The 2707 was designed to cruise at about Mach 2.7, close to Mach 3, with up to 300 seats, against Concorde's Mach 2 and 100 seats; Congress cut its funding in 1971.

Which airliner is often credited with beginning the Jet Age, though it wasn't the first jet in service?

The Boeing 707 entered service with Pan Am in October 1958, six years after the Comet, but its success made jet travel mainstream; more than 1,000 were built and it dominated the 1960s.

Which was the only trijet aircraft ever produced by Boeing?

The Boeing 727, built from 1963 to 1984, is Boeing's only trijet; its centre engine is fed through an S-duct below the T-tail, and 1,832 were built.

Which airline placed the first Boeing 757 into commercial service in January 1983?

Eastern Air Lines put the first 757 into service on 1 January 1983, with British Airways following in February; production ended in October 2004 after 1,050 were built.

The Boeing 767's seven-abreast cabin was sized to carry which smaller cargo container?

The 767's cabin, narrower than other wide-bodies, fits two LD2 containers side by side in the hold, a size created for it, where the A300 and DC-10 carry standard LD3s; it was Boeing's first wide-body twinjet.

Which Boeing airliner was the first designed entirely on computer, without paper drawings?

The Boeing 777, launched in 1990, was the first commercial aircraft designed wholly in 3-D CAD software (CATIA), with no paper drawings or full-scale mock-up; it first flew in June 1994.

How many wheels are on each main landing gear of the Boeing 777?

Each main landing gear of the 777 carries six wheels on a three-axle bogie, twelve in total, spreading its weight without the extra centre-line gear used on the DC-10-30 and A340.

How many jet engines does the B-52 Stratofortress have?

The B-52 carries eight engines in four twin pods under its swept wings, Pratt & Whitney TF33 turbofans on the H model; the USAF has flown the type since 1955.

Which bomber did the B-52 replace for Cold War nuclear deterrence?

The B-52 replaced the ten-engined Convair B-36 Peacemaker, the last of which left Strategic Air Command in February 1959; the B-52 had first flown in April 1952.

Boeing's 747 Large Cargo Freighter was built to ferry major sections of which airliner?

Four 747-400s were converted into Large Cargo Freighters, nicknamed Dreamlifters, to fly 787 Dreamliner fuselage and wing sections from Japan and Italy to final assembly; each holds three times the volume of a 747-400F.

Bombardier acquired which state-owned Canadian planemaker in 1986?

Bombardier bought Canadair from the federal government in 1986, taking on the Challenger business jet, then added Short Brothers in 1989, Learjet in 1990 and de Havilland Canada in 1992.

Cessna was founded in 1927 by Clyde Cessna and whom?

The Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company was formed in September 1927, though Victor Roos sold his stake to Clyde Cessna within weeks; Textron has owned the brand since 1992.

The Cessna Citation business jets are named after what?

The jets were named after Citation, the thoroughbred racehorse that won the American Triple Crown in 1948; Cessna delivered the first Citation in 1972.

Which aircraft is nicknamed 'the plane with the parachute'?

Every Cirrus SR22 carries the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), a rocket-deployed whole-plane parachute that made its first real-world save in October 2002.

The 9 in Comac's C919 designation refers to what in Chinese culture?

In the C919's name the C stands for China and Comac, the 9 for jiu, a homophone of 'long-lasting' or longevity, and the 19 for its roughly 190-seat capacity.

Which airline received the first production Comac C919 in December 2022?

China Eastern took delivery of the first C919 in Shanghai on 9 December 2022 and flew the first passenger service, Shanghai to Beijing, on 28 May 2023.

What does the Q stand for in the Dash 8 'Q Series' turboprops?

The Q stands for Quiet: from 1996-97 Bombardier fitted Dash 8s with an active noise and vibration suppression system and rebranded them the Q Series.

Which airport was the world's busiest by international passenger traffic in 2024?

Dubai International handled about 92 million international passengers in 2024, first in the world for the eleventh straight year; it had overtaken London Heathrow in 2014.

During EAA AirVenture, which airport hosts the world's busiest control tower?

Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin handles more than 10,000 aircraft movements during AirVenture week, usually the last full week of July, making its tower the world's busiest for that week.

With 26 aerial victories, who was the top American flying ace of World War I?

Eddie Rickenbacker, a pre-war racing driver, scored 26 victories with the 94th Aero Squadron in 1918 and later ran Eastern Air Lines for more than two decades.

Which Romanian inventor introduced the modern ejection seat layout in the late 1920s?

Anastase Dragomir patented his 'catapult-able cockpit', a detachable parachuted cell, in France in 1928, and it was successfully tested at Paris-Orly on 25 August 1929.

Embraer is headquartered in which Brazilian city?

Embraer was founded in 1969 in São José dos Campos, in São Paulo state, beside the CTA aerospace research centre and the ITA engineering institute, and builds its E-Jets there.

Which airline provided Emirates with its first two aircraft in 1985?

Pakistan International Airlines leased Emirates a Boeing 737-300 and an Airbus A300B4 for its first flights, Dubai to Karachi, on 25 October 1985; the airline began with $10 million in capital.

The FAA was created in 1958 to replace which agency?

The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 transferred the Civil Aeronautics Administration's functions to the new Federal Aviation Agency, renamed an Administration when it joined the Department of Transportation in 1967.

Where on a wing are flaps usually mounted?

They reduce stalling speed and shorten takeoff and landing distances.

The world's first flight attendant, Heinrich Kubis, served aboard what in 1912?

Kubis looked after passengers on the Zeppelin LZ 10 Schwaben from March 1912, and was later chief steward of the Hindenburg, surviving its 1937 crash.

Which recording device preserves the recent history of sounds on the flight deck?

The cockpit voice recorder keeps a rolling record of flight-deck audio, at least two hours on modern airliners, and may be combined with the flight data recorder in a single unit.

Fly-by-wire replaces manual flight controls with what?

Fly-by-wire replaces cables and pushrods with an electronic interface: pilot inputs become signals that computers turn into actuator commands; the Airbus A320 of 1988 brought it to airliners.

Besides aviation, Sir George Cayley is credited with inventing what?

Cayley devised the tension-spoked wire wheel in 1808 to make a light undercarriage for his gliders; in 1799 he had already set out the concept of the fixed-wing aeroplane.

The 'Gimli Glider' Boeing 767 ran out of fuel partly because of confusion between which units?

It glided from 41,000 feet to a former air base turned racetrack.

The Gossamer Albatross crossed the English Channel in 1979 powered by what?

It won the second Kremer prize worth £100,000.

Gulfstream business jets began as a turboprop built by which military-aircraft maker?

Grumman, maker of the Navy's Hellcat and later the F-14, built the turboprop Gulfstream I from 1958 as a 12-seat corporate aircraft; the line was sold off in 1978 and became Gulfstream Aerospace.

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier was the first operational attack aircraft with which capability?

The US Marine Corps operated it as the AV-8A.

Heathrow was known by what name until 1966?

The airport opened for civil use in 1946 as London Airport and was renamed Heathrow in 1966; the site had been Fairey's Great West Aerodrome, a small private airfield, from 1930.

Which was the first successful, practical, fully controllable helicopter, in 1936?

The Focke-Wulf Fw 61, with twin side-by-side rotors, first flew on 26 June 1936 and was demonstrated indoors by Hanna Reitsch in Berlin's Deutschlandhalle in 1938; the Sikorsky R-4 became the first production helicopter.

The Hindenburg caught fire while docking at which naval air station in 1937?

The Hindenburg burst into flames on 6 May 1937 while mooring at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey; 36 people died, including one member of the ground crew.

Where are the HondaJet's engines unusually mounted?

The HondaJet carries its two HF120 engines on pylons above the wing, a layout that frees cabin space and cuts drag; it first flew in December 2003 and was certified in December 2015.

In a hot air balloon, the balloon inlet nearest the burner is made from what fire-resistant material?

The mouth or skirt nearest the burner is made of Nomex, DuPont's flame-resistant aramid also used in racing suits; the rest of the envelope is usually rip-stop nylon.

How many letters make up an IATA airport code?

IATA codes are three letters, like LHR or JFK, and are the ones printed on baggage tags and tickets; ICAO uses four-letter codes such as EGLL for Heathrow.

In Greek myth, who built the wings that Icarus flew with?

Daedalus, the craftsman imprisoned on Crete by King Minos, built the wings from feathers, thread and beeswax to escape with his son Icarus, who flew too close to the sun.

In an ILS approach, which signal provides horizontal guidance to the runway?

The localizer, transmitting between 108 and 112 MHz, gives lateral guidance to the runway centreline, while the glideslope on UHF provides the vertical path.

IATA's predecessor, the International Air Traffic Association, was formed in 1919 where?

A handful of European airlines founded the International Air Traffic Association at The Hague on 28 August 1919; the modern IATA that succeeded it was set up in 1945.

The UN's civil aviation agency, ICAO, is headquartered in which city?

ICAO has been headquartered in Montreal since it came into being in April 1947; its Air Navigation Commission has 19 commissioners.

The thermodynamic cycle used by air-breathing jet engines is named after whom?

Jet engines run on the Brayton cycle, named for American engineer George Brayton, who patented a constant-pressure engine in 1872: air is compressed, heated by burning fuel, and expanded through a turbine.

Most travellers find jet lag harder to adjust to when flying in which direction?

Going west to east is a phase-advance of the circadian cycle.

Jet streams generally flow in which direction around the globe?

Jet streams blow from west to east, driven by the Earth's rotation and the temperature contrast between polar and tropical air; the polar jet sits near 30,000 feet and often runs over 100 mph.

New York's JFK Airport borders which body of water?

JFK sits on the shore of Jamaica Bay in southern Queens, covering some 5,000 acres; it opened in 1948 as New York International Airport, known as Idlewild.

Which is the oldest operating airline still using its original name?

KLM, founded on 7 October 1919, is the oldest airline to operate continuously under its original name; it merged with Air France in 2004 but kept its own brand.

Learjet founder William Lear originally set up his company under what name?

Bombardier ended Learjet production in 2021.

The Lockheed Constellation was the first airliner family in widespread use with what feature?

Its distinctive triple tail and dolphin-shaped fuselage made it a classic.

Which airliner was the third wide-body to enter service, after the 747 and DC-10?

The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar entered service in April 1972, after the 747 in 1970 and the DC-10 in 1971; its three Rolls-Royce RB211 engines include a tail engine fed by an S-duct.

The F-22 Raptor replaced which fighter in most active-duty USAF squadrons?

The F-22 took over the F-15 Eagle's air-superiority role from 2005; production was capped in 2009 at 195 aircraft including test jets, far below the 750 once planned.

The Lockheed U-2 spy plane carries what nickname?

The U-2, nicknamed the Dragon Lady after a comic-strip character, has flown reconnaissance since 1956 at altitudes above 70,000 feet, where its pilots wear full pressure suits.

How many parallel runways does Los Angeles International Airport have?

LAX has four parallel east-west runways in two pairs, north and south of the terminals; it served about 76 million passengers in 2024.

The Mach number is named after a physicist from which country?

Ernst Mach, the Austrian physicist and philosopher who photographed supersonic shock waves in 1887, gives his name to the ratio of an object's speed to the local speed of sound.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished in 2014 while flying to which city?

Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on 8 March 2014 and vanished with 239 people aboard; the Boeing 777-200ER is believed to have ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

How many air combat victories was the Red Baron officially credited with?

Manfred von Richthofen was officially credited with 80 victories, the most of any First World War pilot; he began the war as a cavalry officer before transferring to the Air Service in 1915.

The Red Baron's fighter wing was nicknamed what because of its brightly coloured aircraft?

Jagdgeschwader 1, the 'Flying Circus', earned the name from its brightly painted aircraft and its habit of moving between fronts by rail and setting up in tents like a travelling show.

Which airline introduced the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 into service in August 1971?

American Airlines flew the first DC-10 service, Los Angeles to Chicago, on 5 August 1971, with United following later that month; early DC-10s suffered from a flawed cargo-door latch.

What was the Montgolfier family's trade in their hometown of Annonay?

The Montgolfiers ran a paper manufacturing business in Annonay, and their first balloons were made of paper-lined sackcloth; their balloon carried the first crewed flight in November 1783.

Which sci-fi model is part of the National Air and Space Museum's collection?

The 11-foot filming model of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series was donated to the Smithsonian in 1974 and fully restored for display in 2016.

The P-51 Mustang prototype airframe was completed how many days after contract signing?

North American rolled out the NA-73X prototype on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the British Purchasing Commission signed for it; it first flew on 26 October 1940.

The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber has a crew of how many?

It is a four-engined flying wing produced from 1988 to 2000.

Which airport has the most runways in the world, with eight?

Chicago O'Hare has eight runways, six parallel east-west plus two diagonals, after a 2021 expansion; its ORD code comes from the site's old name, Orchard Field.

Which honour did naval aviator Butch O'Hare, namesake of an Illinois airport, receive?

Butch O'Hare received the Medal of Honor for single-handedly attacking nine Japanese bombers threatening the carrier Lexington on 20 February 1942, becoming the Navy's first ace of the war; Chicago's airport was renamed for him in 1949.

Which German pioneer, known as the 'flying man', made the first well-documented glider flights?

Otto Lilienthal made some 2,000 documented glides from 1891, his photographs inspiring the Wrights; he died in August 1896 after his glider stalled and fell about 15 metres near Berlin.

Pan Am's globe logo was nicknamed what?

Pan Am's blue globe logo, introduced in the 1950s, was nicknamed the 'Blue Meatball' by staff; the airline's aircraft names and call signs used the word 'Clipper'.

Pan Am's original 1927 route connected Key West with which city?

Pan Am's first scheduled flight carried mail from Key West to Havana on 28 October 1927 in a Fokker F.VII, with passengers following in January 1928.

Who coined the term 'parachute' in 1785?

Louis-Sébastien Lenormand coined 'parachute', from para, 'shield', and chute, 'fall', in 1785, two years after jumping from the Montpellier observatory tower under a 14-foot canopy.

The Paris Air Show is held at which airport?

The Paris Air Show has been held at Le Bourget, north-east of the city, since 1953; first staged in 1909, it runs in odd-numbered years, alternating with Farnborough.

The Piper J-3 Cub served in World War II under what military name?

The military J-3 was the L-4 Grasshopper, used for artillery spotting and liaison; nearly 20,000 Cubs were built, and its simplicity drew comparisons to the Ford Model T.

What does the name Qantas stand for?

Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services was the original November 1920 name, since the airline first served exactly those two regions.

In which year did Qantas fly its first scheduled passenger service?

Qantas flew its first scheduled service on 2 November 1922, from Charleville to Cloncurry in Queensland, carrying mail and a single passenger, 84-year-old grazier Alexander Kennedy.

Which organisation coined the term RADAR in 1940?

It stands for radio detection and ranging.

The Red Arrows' motto Éclat is a French word meaning what?

Éclat means 'brilliance' or 'excellence'; the Red Arrows adopted the motto at their formation in 1965, and their badge shows the trademark Diamond Nine formation.

The Red Arrows initially flew which aircraft type?

The Red Arrows formed in 1965 with Folland Gnat trainers, inheriting seven from the RAF Yellowjacks team, and flew them until switching to the BAe Hawk in 1980.

Which aircraft was the first to fly around the world without stopping or refuelling?

Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew the Rutan Voyager around the world in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds, landing at Edwards Air Force Base on 23 December 1986.

Ryanair is headquartered in which Irish town?

Ryanair's head office is in Swords, north of Dublin, beside its Dublin Airport base; the airline was founded in 1984 by Tony Ryan, Christopher Ryan and Liam Lonergan.

Which airline was the launch customer for the Airbus A380?

Singapore Airlines took the first A380 on 15 October 2007 and flew it Singapore to Sydney ten days later; it was also the launch customer of the Boeing 787-10 in 2018.

The record Singapore-Newark non-stop route was originally flown with which aircraft?

Singapore Airlines flew Singapore to Newark with the four-engined A340-500 from 2004 to 2013, when fuel costs killed it; the route returned in October 2018 with the A350-900ULR.

Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard earlier co-piloted the first balloon to do what?

Piccard and Brian Jones flew Breitling Orbiter 3 around the world non-stop in March 1999, taking just under 20 days from Switzerland to Egypt; Solar Impulse 2 later circled the globe on solar power in 2015-16.

In 1973, sonic booms led the US to prohibit routine civil supersonic flight where?

The FAA's 1973 rule banned civil supersonic flight over US land because of sonic booms; NASA's low-boom X-59 demonstrator was built to show the rule could be loosened.

Southwest Airlines began flying between which three Texas cities?

Southwest began service on 18 June 1971 linking Dallas Love Field, Houston and San Antonio, the 'Texas Triangle'; it had been incorporated as Air Southwest Co. in 1967.

Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis was built by Ryan Airlines in which city?

The flight took 33 hours, 30 minutes.

Lindbergh took off for Paris from which airfield?

Lindbergh lifted off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island at 7:52 a.m. on 20 May 1927, barely clearing the telephone wires, and won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.

A wing typically stalls when the angle of attack exceeds roughly what?

Most wings stall at an angle of attack of about 15 degrees, when airflow separates from the upper surface and lift collapses; a stall has nothing to do with the engines stopping.

Which aircraft has the longest wingspan ever flown, at 385 feet?

Stratolaunch's Roc, a twin-fuselage carrier aircraft built with 747 parts, spans 385 feet and first flew on 13 April 2019, beating the Hughes H-4's 320 feet.

Which airline was the first to fly the Sud Aviation Caravelle in scheduled service, in 1959?

SAS flew the first scheduled Caravelle service on 26 April 1959, a fortnight before Air France; the jet's rear-mounted engines allowed a clean low wing and a quiet cabin.

Who designed the Supermarine Spitfire?

R. J. Mitchell, Supermarine's chief designer, created the Spitfire, which first flew on 5 March 1936, and died of cancer the next year; Canadian aerodynamicist Beverley Shenstone shaped its elliptical wing.

The deadliest accident in aviation history was a 1977 collision on which island?

Two Boeing 747s collided in fog on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, on 27 March 1977, killing 583 people, the most in any aviation accident.

Which two airlines' 747s collided at Los Rodeos Airport in 1977?

KLM 4805 began its takeoff roll without clearance and struck Pan Am 1736 taxiing on the same runway; both 747s had been diverted to Los Rodeos after a bomb at Gran Canaria airport.

Which tycoon held a controlling interest in TWA by 1944?

Howard Hughes bought into TWA from 1939 and held a controlling stake by 1944, backing the Constellation and the airline's postwar expansion to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The Soviet Tu-144 first flew how long before Concorde?

The Tu-144 first flew on 31 December 1968, two months before Concorde's maiden flight on 2 March 1969, making it the first supersonic transport to fly.

How many Tupolev Tu-144s were manufactured?

Only 55 of its 102 commercial flights carried passengers.

In a turbofan, what term describes how much air skirts the core versus passing through it?

The bypass ratio compares air ducted around the core by the fan with air passing through it; modern airliner engines run ratios of 9:1 or more for fuel efficiency and low noise.

Which was the first turboprop-powered airliner to enter service, in 1953?

The Vickers Viscount entered service with BEA in April 1953, powered by four Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops; passengers loved its large oval windows and low vibration.

What is the main purpose of the upturned winglets on an airliner's wingtips?

Winglets reduce drag by effectively raising the height of the lifting system without a longer wingspan.

Which tailor died in 1912 testing a wearable parachute suit in a jump in Paris?

Franz Reichelt, an Austrian-born Paris tailor, jumped from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower on 4 February 1912 wearing his parachute suit; it failed to open and he died on impact.

What was the horsepower of the Wright Flyer's gasoline engine?

The Wrights' mechanic Charlie Taylor built the four-cylinder engine in six weeks; it produced about 12 horsepower and weighed 180 pounds, driving two pusher propellers through bicycle chains.

How far did the Wright Flyer travel on its fourth and final flight?

Wilbur's fourth flight covered 852 feet in 59 seconds; minutes later a gust flipped the Flyer and wrecked it, and it never flew again.

The Wright Flyer controlled roll using what technique?

The design was relatively unstable and very difficult to fly.

German airship bombing raids on Britain in World War I caused how many deaths?

Germany's defeat in 1918 temporarily slowed the airship business.

The distress call 'mayday' was coined in the early 1920s by a radio officer at which airport?

Frederick Stanley Mockford chose it as the phonetic equivalent of the French m'aider, since much of the traffic was between Croydon and Paris.

Who made the first free flight by humans, in a Montgolfier balloon over Paris on 21 November 1783?

Pilâtre de Rozier and the marquis d'Arlandes went up weeks after a sheep, a duck and a rooster had flown; the king had suggested sending convicts instead.

Louis Blériot's 1909 flight across the English Channel won a £1,000 prize put up by which British newspaper?

The Daily Mail's £1,000 made Blériot world-famous; he had funded his aviation work with profits from inventing the first practical car headlamp.

Which secretive Lockheed division developed the F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational stealth aircraft?

Skunk Works built the subsonic, twin-engined attack jet from a 1970s programme; the F-117 retired from Air Force service in 2008.

The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is the first production aircraft of which type?

The V-22 is a tiltrotor: its two proprotors swivel upward to take off and land like a helicopter and forward to cruise like a turboprop; it entered US Marine Corps service in 2007.

Which NASA engineer's 1970s research gave 'winglet' its modern meaning?

Whitcomb used the term for near-vertical extensions of the wing tips; he had earlier devised the area rule for transonic aircraft.

What term do air traffic controllers use when assigning an aircraft a transponder code?

'Squawk 7421' means select that code; transponders also let collision-avoidance systems detect nearby aircraft.

How many metres is an international nautical mile, exactly?

The international nautical mile was fixed at exactly 1,852 metres in 1929, approximating one minute of latitude; the knot, one nautical mile per hour, is the standard unit of aircraft speed.

Near which French village was Manfred von Richthofen shot down and killed on 21 April 1918?

Richthofen crashed near Vaux-sur-Somme on 21 April 1918 while chasing a Sopwith Camel at low level; Canadian pilot Roy Brown was credited, though the fatal bullet most likely came from Australian ground gunners.