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About This Quiz
Not long after humankind invented the airplane, we invented aerial warfare. How much do you know about this modern form of combat?
Watch the skies! Not very long after the airplane was invented, humans began to think of ways to use it in wartime. Actually, let's back up. Aerial warfare precedes the airplane, as balloons and dirigibles (airships that preceded the fixed-wing aircraft) were used in wars in the 19th century and before. Even drones are much older than you might think, with unmanned "flying bombs" playing a part in WWI.
Yup, air combat has a crazy history, from pilots shooting at each other with handguns and dropping grenades from altitude, to the Russian pilot who died ramming an enemy aircraft, through the race to create a fighter craft that would be invisible to radar -- a project that seemed to defy the laws of physics. But it's also a very serious subject. In the 21st century, "air supremacy" is seen as essential to military power. No nation with a modern military is without an air force.
Are you an expert on air combat? For example, do you know what the Enola Gay is famous for? Or which fighter Jiro Horikoshi innovated? Or the better-known nickname of Manfred von Richthofen? (We bet you know THAT one, at least!) We've created a 35-question quiz spanning the history of aerial warfare, so you can put your chops to the test. Strap in -- there's no beverage service on *this* flight!
When a nation has its own aerial-warfare branch of the military, independent of an army or navy, it is usually called a/an ______.
Air command
Air force
"Air force" is the usual word in English, with similar terms in other languages. Canada has its Royal Canadian Air Force, and Australia the Royal Australian Air Force.
Bombing wing
Aerospace command
Which of these wars was the first to have air combat?
The American Civil War
The Crimean War
World War I
This isn't including the Italo-Turkish war a few years earlier. In that conflict, Italian pilots dropped grenades from planes. However, WWI was the first war to substantially use aircraft.
World War II
A one-on-one fight in the air is called a/an ________.
Aeroduel
Batfight
Dogfight
Dogfights involved complicated maneuvering, often with pilots jockeying to get behind the other aircraft. That's an ideal position from which to fire.
Pied a terre
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Which of these is NOT a maneuever in dogfighting?
Barrel roll
Break
Flunge
The comically-named "flunge" comes from a much older form of fighting: fencing. It's short for "flying lunge."
Immelman
The Sopwith _______ was an iconic WWI plane.
Camel
Where, you might ask, did the name come from? The plane had a protective metal shield over the guns to keep them from freezing in cold temperatures, which made a "hump."
Fox
Lion
Wolf
Which nation made the Sopwith Camel?
France
England
The Sopwith Camel was British-made, a single-seat biplane with machine guns. Its predecessor was called the Sopwith Pup.
Germany
Japan
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By what name was WWI ace Manfred von Richthofen better known?
the Ace of Aces
The German Kestrel
The Red Baron
The Red Baron is one of the best-known military aviators in history. He racked up 80 victories in combat during World War I. Even people not interested in military history know him, because of many "Peanuts" cartoons in which Snoopy imagines being a fighter ace hunting "The Red Baron."
The Teutonic Tyro
The RAF is the air force of which nation?
China
England
The "R" is for "Royal," of course. Many well-known Brits have served in the RAF, including beloved veterinarian-author, James Herriot.
Japan
Spain
In what decade did the US Air Force break away from the Army?
The 1930s
The 1940s
This happened in 1947, not long after World War II ended. The Air Force's Chief of Staff is part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who advise the president on military matters.
The 1950s
The 1960s
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True or false: Do warplanes ever carry nuclear weapons?
True
The most famous example of this is the plane that bombed Hiroshima. But in the Cold War, it was common for fighter planes to carry nuclear arms, and it still happens today.
False
A humanitarian mission, to evacuate people or deliver supplies, is called an ______.
Air crusade
Airlift
A famous example of this was Operation Babylift in the Vietnam War. More than 10,000 orphans were flown out of Saigon after the city's fall, and adopted by people in the West.
Ascent
Crisis flight
The Spitfire was a craft used by England in which war?
World War I
World War II
Like the Sopwiths in World War I, the Spitfire was considered the primary British fighter plane in World War II, despite the slightly larger number of Hawker Hurricanes. Fun fact: A little more than 50 Spitfires are still capable of getting into the air.
The Falklands War
The War of the Roses
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What was the Enola Gay famous for?
A dogfight with the Red Baron
Returning fire at Pearl Harbor
Participating in the Berlin Airlift
Dropping the first atomic bomb in wartime
The United States remains the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon in wartime, a fact on which American history books do not dwell. The Enola Gay was the bomber that flew the Hiroshima mission ​and was a weather reconnaissance plane in the second mission, which bombed Nagasaki.
For whom was the Enola Gay named?
The bombardier's girlfriend
The pilot's mother
The pilot was an Army colonel, Paul Tibbets. He chose the plane for his crew and mission while it was still on the assembly line, and named it for his mother.
The pilot's dog
Harry Truman's grandmother
By what name was the Mitsubishi A6M plane, flown in WWII, better known?
The Albatross
The Crane
The Zero
"Zeroes" were the primary fighter aircraft produced by Japan during WWII, and were flown in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hayao Miyazaki's last film, "The Wind Rises," is about Jiro Horikoshi, the chief designer behind the Zero.
The Galant
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About how many miles was the range of the Japanese Zero?
800
1000
1600
The Zero was able to achieve such a range because it was very lightweight. Tradeoffs included having no armor protection for the pilot and no self-sealing fuel tank, which made the Zero dangerous to fly.
2400
How many Americans were killed in the air attack on Pearl Harbor?
137
410
About 1,200
More than 2,300
The official US death toll was 2,403. In addition, more than 1,000 were injured when Japanese warplanes bombed the fleet at Pearl Harbor, sinking four battleships and damaging the remaining four.
Bombing a target from a steep angle of descent is called _______ bombing.
Dive
Dive bombers descend at an angle from 45 degrees to, at the maximum, 80 degrees. Needless to say, this requires an airplane made well enough to withstand the force of pulling up afterward, and a pilot with strong nerves.
Fell
Parabolic
Sweep
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What is the reason behind dive bombing?
It lets the pilot see the target better
It reduces the chance of being shot down by anti-aircraft weapons
It reduces the unpredictable sideways motion of the bomb
When the plane is descending steeply, the bomb released will follow that nearly-vertical path. If a bomb is dropped from a plane flying level, it is harder to predict the effects of forward velocity, drag and wind on the bomb.
It looks scary
By what slang term is anti-aircraft fire known?
Ack-ack
Flak
Counterfire
Both #1 and #2
The first is a British radio term for "AA" (or anti-aircraft). The second is short for the German "flugabwehrkanone," or "air defense cannon." You most commonly hear "flak" nowadays, and it's entered public use to mean any kind of resistance. ("I took flak for that decision.")
In 1914, Russian fighter pilot Pyotr Nesterov brought down a plane using what tactic?
Playing chicken
Boarding the craft
Tossing a grenade into it
Deliberately ramming it
Nesterov is not believed to have been suicidal. Rather, he seems to have intended to damage the enemy Albatros (an Austrian plane) while sustaining survivable damage. It didn't work for him, but other Russian pilots used his technique later and survived.
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What is the nickname for Universal Coordinated Time, the time that military pilots use?
Hour Zero
Alpha Time
Zulu Time
"Z" is the letter assigned to Greenwich Mean Time, the starting point for the world's time zones. Under the NATO alphabet, this is "Zulu." Pilots use Zulu time wherever they are on the globe, to prevent confusion.
Miller Time
True or false: Does the US Air Force deploy helicopters?
True
Sikorsky is the main manufacturer of combat helicopters in the U.S. All branches of the military use them. For example, a helicopter was used to transport the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden.
False
What is the name for a mission flown to gain information about enemy territory?
Brief
Debrief
Reconnaissance
"Reconnaissance" is taken from the French word meaning "to known or be familiar with." The term is often shortened to "recon."
Visual
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What is the common term for an "air exclusion zone"?
Free-flight zone
No Man's Land
No-Fly Zone
A "No-Fly Zone" is a demilitarized zone in airspace. Neither side in a war, or ongoing hostilities, is allowed to patrol it.
Radio-silence zone
Are "no-fly zones" strictly a military issue?
True
False
A no-fly zone was set up over the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The security of the athletes and international visitors was at stake, since the Games are a common target for terrorism.
Which of these was a Soviet aircraft?
The Krushchev
The Junkers
The MiG
"MiG" is short for Mikoyan-Gurevich, the Soviet-era manufacturer. MiGs flew Soviet airspace and fought Soviet battles from the 1940s to the 1980s (one is prominently featured in the movie, "Top Gun").
The Sikorsky
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A plane designed to have minimum detectability by radar is called a _____ craft.
Ghost
Spirit
Metaflex
Stealth
Stealth aircraft usually look as though they were designed for maximum aerodynamics, as the body is very flat. They are not completely impervious to radar -- no aircraft is -- but designs continue to improve, decreasingly their detectability.
Which company created the first stealth fighter?
Lockheed
The creation of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was a super-secret project for many years, as well as a triumph of physics. The geometric plates of its body were designed to scatter electromagnetic waves, making it far less vulnerable to radar.
Boeing
Northrop
Sikorsky
Who made the B-2 Spirit Bomber?
Boeing
Lockheed
Northrop-Grumann
Northrop-Grumman is the world's fifth-largest defense contractor. It rolled out the B-2 Spirit in 1997, though the development took much longer.
Sopwith
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The Luftwaffe was the aerial military wing of which nation?
Germany
You're probably most familiar with the term "Luftwaffe" from books and films about WWII. It wasn't a very long-lived name. Germany developed the Luftwaffe in secret after its previous air division was disbanded after WWI, as part of the terms of peace. Then it was dissolved, for the same reason, after Germany lost WWII.
Italy
Saudi Arabia
Russia
Does a missile need to impact its target to do damage?
True
False
When the Soviets shot down a civilian plane, Korean Air 007, the missile actually detonated behind the 747 (as it was designed to). Contrary to what many people likely believed, the 747 was not instantly destroyed, but was crippled and then crashed.
What type of plane was Gary Powers flying when he was shot down over the USSR?
A B-52 bomber
A MiG fighter
A Black Hawk helicopter
A U-2 spy plane
Powers was shot down as part of a spy mission, flying his U-2 at high altitude and photographing Soviet military installations. The incident was embarrassing to the United States, but Powers survived, and was later released from a Soviet prison as part of a prisoner exchange.
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Who was the first woman to fly a combat mission in WWI?
Amelia Earhart
Jennie Curtiss
Marie Marvingt
Marvingt was an alpinist, skier, surgical nurse, journalist, pilot and all-around adrenalin junkie. She flew bomber missions over Germany in WWI, and a longtime interest of hers was the creation of an air ambulance service.
No women flew combat missions in WWI
You Got:
/35
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