Plane & Pilot April 2021

With the passing of General Chuck Yeager late last year, America didn’t just lose a supersonic pioneer; we lost a symbol of an entire generation, the one defined in large part by World War II and our coming together as a country to defeat the rise of fascism on the European continent and in the Pacific. To many pilots, Chuck Yeager was the face of that victory, of that generation, which journalist, author and historian Tom Brokaw dubbed “The Greatest Generation” in his book by that same title. The real story is far more complicated than that, of course, as it always is with tales of heroes. Look no further than the history of the Tuskegee Airmen squadron for proof of that. That’s the nature of the American Experiment. But if…

Slowest Speed An Aircraft Can Stay Airborne: Stall Speed (Vs) Typical Vs For Single-Engine Plane: 42-50 mph Commercial Airliners: 155 mph Variables: Aircraft density, air density, aircraft length, gravitational acceleration First Human-Powered Aircraft Capable Of Controlled Flight: MacCready Gossamer Condor Vs: 7 mph Powered By: Pedaling First Flight: Dec. 26, 1976 Top Speed Of Its Successor, The Gossamer Albatross: 18 mph Time It Took To Fly Across The English Channel: 2 hours, 29 minutes Altitude Flown: 5 feet Miles: 22.2 Physical Exhaustion: High Reward For Feat: £100,000 World Speed Record For Human-Powered Flight: 27.5 mph Aircraft: Rochelt Musculair 2 Empty Weight: 53 pounds Power Generation Requirement By Pilot: 250 W Aircraft With No Published Stall Speed: Soviet Antonov An-2 Bi-Plane Empty Weight: 12,125 pounds Lowest Controlled Flight Speed Recorded: 25 mph Max Speed: 160 mph Popular Demonstration At Airshows: Flying backward Slowest Maneuver Performed By The Blue Angels F/A-18: “Section High Alpha” Speed: 120…

MYSTERY Is it possible that Helen Keller—unable to hear or see—could have really flown an airplane across the Mediterranean Sea in 1946? BACKGROUND “Like a great graceful bird sailing through the illimitable skies.” —Helen Keller’s description of an airplane Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1880, Helen Keller was a mere 19 months old when she came down with a febrile illness that tragically robbed her of both sight and hearing. Deaf, blind and mute, she spent her youngest years struggling to wade through the dark, dense fog that had settled over her life. Her family described her as wild and unruly—understandably so—but also quite intelligent. Remarkably, young Helen Keller invented more than 60 hand signs for communication and learned to identify people by the vibration of their footsteps. On a day Keller would later call…

CONGRESS FIGHTS BACK AGAINST GPS THREAT After the FCC gave Ligado Networks the green light to pursue a 5G network on a frequency band dangerously close to that used by GPS, lawmakers have taken action to stem the potential fallout of such a move. As part of the recent defense bill that went into effect on Jan. 1, the Department of Defense will now conduct an independent review to assess the details of the Ligado agreement and determine the costs any interference might pose for the aviation industry. Such costs might include new equipment and infrastructure costs needed to protect against interference, and given the potentially far-reaching effects of any frequency disruption, preliminary estimates suggest such expenses could be steep. The safeguarding measures come after the DOD overtly opposed the FCC’s approval of…

Checklists are an essential link in the safety chain at all levels of aviation. The checklist, like any success story, has many parents. However, the 1935 crash of the Boeing 299, the prototype of the legendary Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, is generally regarded as a key turning point. The 299, with a crew of five on board, crashed shortly after takeoff due to the pilot’s failure to release the gust locks, killing the pilot and a second crewmember. This innovation protected the tail surfaces from wind damage while parked by locking the elevator and rudder. Thankfully, the accident did not spell the end of the B-17, but it did highlight the need for a pre-takeoff checklist to ensure that these increasingly complex airplanes were operated safely. Flash forward to today, and…

Beech A36 Bonanza Chebanse, Illinois/Injuries: 1 Fatal, 1 Serious, 1 Minor The pilot reported that, during a cross-country flight, while in cruise altitude at 3,000 ft mean sea level, the engine lost power. He subsequently performed a forced landing to a muddy wheat field. Examination at the site revealed that the left and right main fuel tanks were intact; the left tank was empty and the right tank contained about 25 gallons. The wing tip tanks were breached during the accident, but burns in the field were indicative of fuel being in the wing tip tanks at the time they were breached. The fuel selector was found in the left tank position. Further examination revealed that the fuel line from the fuel selector to the engine-driven fuel pump contained no fuel. A test…