Features Operations
Test your knowledge: Questions 31-40

31. The Canadian Forces, which flies the Sea King helicopter, seems to have a thing about helicopters and royalty … or chess. Our Labrador chopper, used from 1963 to 2004 for search and rescue, is a variant of the Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea ___?
a) Queen
b) Knight
c) Rook
d) Prince

Labrador helicopter (Photo by Carroll McCormick)

Answer: (b) – This aircraft is also known as the banana helicopter, or banana chopper.

32. On May 27 this year, Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk headed skyward for a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS). Which spacecraft took him there?
a) Space Shuttle
b) Aeriane 5
c) Soyuz
d) Shenzhou 7

Answer: (c) – He will be on the ISS for six months. Canadian astronaut Julie Payette was scheduled to join him on board the ISS in June, as part of a 16-day mission. Her mission was  postponed until July 11, 2009.

33. Seventy Hawker Sea Fury aircraft served with the Royal Canadian Navy between 1948 and 1956, in 871 Squadron. What was the name of the aircraft carrier they flew from?
a) HMCS Magnificent
b) HMCS Warrior
c) HMCS Nabob
d) HMCS Puncher

Answer: (a) – Magnificent was commissioned in 1948 and paid off in 1957.

34. On a terminology database called Terminav©, the French translation of the English term “acrobatic flight” is offered as “acrobatie aérienne.” Which Canadian organization or company does Terminav belong to?
a) Canadian Airports Council
b) Transport Canada
c) Université de Montréal
d) Nav Canada

Answer: (d) – See this database of thousands of specialized terms in English and French at http://www.navcanada.ca/logiterm/addon/terminav/termino.php

35. The name James Gruben is connected with which northern Canadian airport?
a) Tuktoyaktuk
b) Alert
c) Baker Lake
d) Repulsive Bay

Answer: (a) – This businessman was killed on an ice road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk in 2001. The airport, located on the edge of the Beaufort Sea, is now known as the Tuktoyaktuk/ James Gruben Airport.

36. Which airport in Newfoundland used to be called the Newfoundland Airport?
a) St. John’s
b) Stephenville
c) Deer Lake
d) Gander

Answer: (d) – Construction began in 1936 and it became operational on Nov. 30, 1938. According to the Gander airport website, the first airplane to land there was a Fox Moth, VO-ADE. It was once the largest airport in the world.

37. Which Canadian flying ace played the air marshal in the 1942 movie Captains of the Clouds?
a) Billy Bishop
b) Punch Dickins
c) Camille Lagesse
d) Ellis Vair Reid

Answer: (a) – He played himself. James Cagney starred in this movie as bush pilot Brian MacLean. This movie is touted as the first Hollywood picture to be filmed entirely on location in Canada.

38. Where are Space Camp Canada and the Space Science Center located?
a) North York
b) Vancouver
c) Kamloops
d) Laval

Answer: (d) – Both are in the Laval Cosmodome, north of Montreal. The 1994 inauguration of Space Camp Canada was attended by American astronaut Alan Shepard. The Space Science Center is a museum, with a real moon rock, launcher replicas and tons of other freaky space stuff.

39. Canadian pilots flew 29,000 of the 37,000 operational missions flown by the Halifax aircraft. Of more than 6,000 built, only three remain. Where will you find one in Canada?
a) Calgary Air Museum
b) National Airforce Museum of Canada
c) British Columbia Aviation Museum
d) Shearwater Aviation Museum

Answer: (b) – This museum, in Trenton, restored NA 337, found in Lake Mjosa, Norway, where it lay from April 24, 1945, until it was raised on Sept. 3, 1995.

40. First World War British ace Arthur Roy Brown was born and died in Ontario, and was an editor for Canadian Aviation magazine after the war. With which ace is his name famously connected?
a) Manfred von Richthofen
b) Aleksey Smirnov
c) Kenji Okabe
d) Max Immelmann

Answer: (a) – Just who potted the Red Baron seems to be in dispute, but Brown was officially credited with the hit.