Plan B Forum

I got not very much, how very embarrassing.

I got 5/7, with some guessing, as some questions required speculation.

4/7..............too many questions focused on British aviation.

Four out of Seven, "Seat belt fastened"....and I was lucky at that...

The only one I knew for certain was the one about a nursing degree being a requirement for early stewardesses...

5/7. Not enough questions focused on British aviation.

2/7 too many questions about jets

I have to challenge one question:

Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognized as being the co-inventors of the jet engine. Each worked separately and knew nothing of the other's work. Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine. Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936. However, Hans von Ohain's jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle's jet first flew in in 1941.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inve ... engine.htm

Whittle got the patent in first. That's what counts.

5/7 for me. Who knew BOAC first flew to Jo-burg?

Guinevere wrote:5/7 for me. Who knew BOAC first flew to Jo-burg?

Ditto.

Nice try Sean...

Here's the text of the question:

Sir Frank Whittle invented the jet engine. The Coventry-born engineer first tested it in the air on 5 May 1941. What is the name of the plane the jet engine was fitted in?

Okay, it's not the question that's questionable, it's the set-up....

Notice the text doesn't say, "Sir Frank Whittle received the first patent for the jet engine"....

From my link:

Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine.

The question text also implies that Whittle had the first successful test in 1941 (since it's calling him the "inventor" and doesn't mention anyone else, that would be the logical conclusion)

Hans von Ohain's jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle's jet first flew in in 1941.

It seems to me there are three ways you could define "inventor" and Whittle comes in first in only one, (which I would argue is the weakest of the three...personally, I would think that the guy who first got his invention to work would have the strongest claim to the title, and the guy who designed the first prototype that ultimately worked, would be the second strongest claim...just because you get a patent on a design doesn't automatically mean that it's going to work)

Of course this test was written by a Limey, (who is also no doubt the product of a Limey education,) and you can't expect them to give the Boche any credit for anything....

The BBC is biased!

America is the birthplace of aviation and who gives a flying fcuk about BOAC!

dales wrote:
America is the birthplace of aviation

Not in any meaningful way no it isn't....

The Wright brothers...

Brazil´s Alberto Santos Dumont flew the first self powered aeroplane.To this day, Brazil has a grudge with the US for the claim that the Wright Brothers invented the airplane. Granted, they flew first, but their airplane was catapulted, basically, so in practical terms it was more like a hanglider. Brazil´s Alberto Santos Dumont was the first to fly an airplane that was propelled by its own engine, which is much more like the airplane as we know it now. Of course things aren´t, as history class makes us think, just suddenly invented by a solitary genius in a single masterstroke, but the result of years of different people developing ideas and adding elements till you get to the more finalized basic version. But Dumont deserves at least as much credit as the Wright Brothers.

The Montgolfier brothers...

Ah yes Brazil that bastion of aeronautics...

America can also lay claim to...

"Wrong-Way" Corrigan

Douglas Corrigan (January 22, 1907 – December 9, 1995) was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. He was nicknamed "Wrong Way" in 1938. After a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, though his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach. He claimed his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass. However, he was a skilled aircraft mechanic (he was one of the builders of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis) and had made several modifications to his own plane, preparing it for his transatlantic flight. He had been denied permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and his "navigational error" was seen as deliberate. Nevertheless, he never publicly admitted to having flown to Ireland intentionally.

keld feldspar wrote:Ah yes Brazil that bastion of aeronautics...

Obviously.

Why all the fuss about Charles Lindbergh? Two British pilots had already crossed the Atlantic. And they did it eight years earlier. In 1919, British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown laughed in the face of gravity by flying from Newfoundland to Ireland in an exhausting 16 hours. When they got back to their native England, they were given the royal treatment -- literally. King George V knighted the two men, and they were awarded a nice cash prize by none other than Winston Churchill.