Commercial Aviation Trivia Quiz

Answer: 18

The aircraft has four main landing gear truck assemblies, each of which have four wheels. It also has two wheels on the nose gear.

Answer: spoilers

Spoilers are panels on top of the wings which when raised, 'kill off' lift. They increase braking efficiency by getting the weight on the wheels as soon as possible. Speed brakes are mounted on the fuselage and when deployed they create drag which bleeds off airspeed. Ailerons and elevators are primary flight controls, which control roll and pitch respectively.

Answer: in the wings and center lower fuselage

The left and right wing tanks are formed by the upper and lower wing skin and the front and rear spars. The center tank is in the lower fuselage forward of the wheel wells. Boost pumps inside the tanks send the fuel to the engines.

Answer: Lockheed L-1011

The L-1011 is a wide body jet seating about 280 passengers. The others are all narrow body jets. Also the L-1011 has three engines, while the others only have two.

Answer: they broke apart at altitude

After several Comets mysteriously broke apart at altitude, they were grounded until a cause was found. By testing a fuselage in a giant tank of water and subjecting it to many simulated pressurizations, they discovered the cutout for the passenger windows didn't have a large enough radius in the corners, and cracks developed leading to an airframe failure in flight.

Answer: Toulouse, France

The final assembly point used to be Toulouse, with many European nations building parts of the aircraft, then shipping the sections to France for final assembly.
In 2011, however, China began building and assembling A-320s entirely within its own country.

Answer: Douglas Commercial

The "DC" designation meant Douglas Commercial, as opposed to a military aircraft which, during the 30's and 40's, Douglas was heavily involved in making. After the McDonnell Douglas merger, they used "MD" such as MD-11, or MD-80.

Answer: True

Contrary to popular belief, a stall warning means the wing is stalling, not the engine. The critical angle of attack has been exceeded and the disruption of airflow over the wing doesn't allow it to create lift. The recovery procedure is to reduce the angle of attack by lowering the nose and regaining airspeed.

Answer: concorde

The 12 remaining Concorde aircraft were finally retired in 2003. Britain had 7 and France, after tragically losing one, had 5 in its livery.

Answer: False

The wings generate lift. The engines just need to provide enough airspeed for the wings to create the lift. A 747-400 can weigh as much as 870,000 lbs at takeoff, but all 4 engines collectively only put out 224,000 lbs of thrust.

Answer: external air cart

The engines have pneumatic starters on them. The DC-8 is an old aircraft and was designed without an APU. (auxiliary power unit, the noisy little jet engine you hear running when the airplane is at the gate). All newer jets have APU's which supply pneumatic and electric power for engine start.

Answer: Boeing 777

With an intake of about 11 feet in diameter and a thrust rating of 90,000 lbs, this engine can move some air!

Answer: False

Two carriers ordered DC-10's with Pratt & Whitney JT-9D20's on them. Northwest Airlines, and Japan Airlines. The aircraft was designated the DC-10-40 series. All other DC-10's had GE CF-6 engines on them.

Answer: flight engineer

With the cost cutting demands of airlines, newer aircraft have been designed to eliminate the flight engineer position. Systems the flight engineer controlled and monitored now are done by computers. If you chose "bombardier" for an answer, seek help immediately!

Answer: engine pressure ratio

Pratt & Whitney engines measure the pressure going into the inlet and divide it by the pressure at the exhaust giving them a ratio of power. The pilot uses these figures which is displayed on an instrument in the cockpit to set the throttles during the course of the flight.