Ok here's the next one, prolly going to be pretty easy.

What was Canada's first supersonic jet, and what was another first for it?

Going to work soon so will check when I return.

simpilot34 wrote:

....and what was another first for it?

.... And is it Canada's first tailless delta?

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Matt
Fly fast, fly low, turn left!

simpilot34 wrote:

Ok here's the next one, prolly going to be pretty easy. What was Canada's first supersonic jet, and what was another first for it? Going to work soon so will check when I return.

Are you referring to the first jet to go supersonic?  If so, that was the CF-100, more specifically the CF-100 Mk. 4 prototype.  Test Pilot Janusz Zurakowski dove it from 30,000 feet and went supersonic on 18 December 1952.  The CF-105 didnt first fly until 1958.

 The other 'first' was that the CF-100 was the first Canadian-designed fighter to be put into mass production.  To date, its the only one, actually.

OK, lets see how far we can get with this one.....

What is the highest altitude that a paper airplane has been launched from?

In 1981, I chucked a paper airplane off the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, and I flew my kite the same day. Does that count? :)

Astronauts flew paper airplanes in an experiment aboard the International Space Station that flies at a minimum altitude of 173 miles above the Earth's surface. Does that count? ;)

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Matt
Fly fast, fly low, turn left!

I thought I had run across reading something the other day stating that a person flew a paper airplane while at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but I can't find it now.

I take it that my flight on top of Half Dome at 8,800+ ASL feet isn't high enough? ;)

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Matt
Fly fast, fly low, turn left!

ok, I guess we'll just give the answer on this one. 

In 1966, an F-8D Crusader launched a paper airplane from the speedbrake well at 50,125 feet indicated.  They put the airplane into the air brake well, pumped the boards shut before startup, and then launched it at that altitude.  Squadron was VF-13....my dad was a jet engine mechanic/plane captain with that squadron on the Shangri La.  You can read about it a little bit on http://www.f8crusader.org/ under "records set by the Crusdader".

 Incidentally, this same squadron was once again on CV-38 Shangri-La the following year, in the Med, when they were having trouble with a Russian trawler.  Back in the cold war days, the Russians would use old trawlers as spy ships, intercepting radio communications and such.  They would shadow our carriers, and often times harass them.  A favorite tactic of the Russians was to get in the way when the carrier was trying to turn into the wind to launch aircraft.  This particular time, the trawler gave Shangri-La a bit of trouble.  VF-13 loaded 13 rolls of toilet paper into the speedbrake well once again.  From the same website I listed above:

 Cleanest Bomb Attack On Soviet Vessel - Med, about May 1967. 13 rolls toilet paper (unused) loaded into speed brake well (I liked that speed brake). Hard right off cat, gear up, opened boards over trawler maneuvering to force carrier to turn. No medal, but no hack either.

I also recall a time my dad told me about a long time ago, it was the same scenario, and they loaded bags of flour into the speedbrake well.  Pilot made low-level pass and dropped the flour right down the smokestack. 

Ok, well we have seemed to hit a slump again. Have to keep kick starting this thing!!!!!

Here's the next one then:

Whaddat?

I think you're right Brumbles.

I found that two Douglas DB-7A, Havoc II's were converted to the twin tail configuration after France ordered them with the bigger Wright R-2600 engines in order to provide more stability. It didn't really improve anything, so they were reconfigured to the common single tail.

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Matt
Fly fast, fly low, turn left!

Wikipedia confirms Mike's answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XA-38_Grizzly

I never think of Beechcraft as building military aircraft, especially not combat planes.  I thought there was a Douglas look about this one.

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