| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| A speed record once held by La France was broken during the initial trial involving one of these objects, which often make use of goldbeater's skin. Thirteen people drowned in the North Sea during an accident involving one of these objects near Heligoland. A propaganda poster depicting one of these vehicles contains a caption reading "IT IS FAR BETTER TO FACE THE BULLETS THAN TO BE KILLED BY THE BOMB." The Empire State Building's spire was originally built to serve as a mooring mast for these vehicles. Often designated with the letters LZ, for the point, what are these German airships? | Zeppelins (prompt on "Airship"; prompt on Dirigible "Balloon") |
| Rod Wooden adapted a work about this man's experiences in Group II/33 [[two thirty-three]] into a radio drama. One work by this man served as the inspiration for the theme of "Man and His World" at the 1967 Exposition held in Montreal. That novel by this man, Wind, Sand, and Stars, deals with a 1935 crash that occurred during a journey from Benghazi to Cairo. A character recounts the story of a rose that grows on the B-612 asteroid in a work by this man banned by the Vichy regime. For the point, name this French aviator and author who wrote The Little Prince. | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (or Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry) |
| Early leaders of a building in this city included Eberhard Rees and Rocco Petrone. Before being tested at the White Sands Missile Range, many ballistic missiles were developed by scientists affected by Operation Paperclip at this city's Redstone Arsenal. Propulsion and external tank development have historically been concentrated at a location in this city, named for a Secretary of State under Harry Truman. Containing the Marshall Space Flight Center, this is, for the point, what "Rocket City" in Alabama? | Huntsville |
| After the Apollo 1 fire, this man informed the widow of Roger Chaffee of her husband's death. This author of Carrying the Fire became the first to perform multiple spacewalks on a lone mission. This man described Earth as "Tiny. Very shiny. Blue and white," having viewed it after becoming the first man since John Young to orbit the moon. The pilot of the Columbia command module is, for the point, which astronaut who accompanied Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11? | Michael Collins |
| An award-winning anti-littering advertisement, which made use of one of these aircraft named after the song Sentimental Journey, is titled "Don't Mess with Texas." 25 missions aboard one of these aircraft were completed by Robert Knight Morgan, who was featured in the William Wyler-directed documentary Memphis Belle. During World War Two, more than 40 percent of the tonnage of American bombs were dropped by this aircraft For the point, name this "Flying Fortress" manufactured by Boeing. | Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress (accept Flying Fortress before mentioned) |
| Martin O. Harwit resigned amid a controversy involving this aircraft, which he claimed "was sometimes a symbolic issue in a culture war." Theodore Van Kirk was the navigator on a mission on this aircraft, co-piloted by Robert A. Lewis. The best-known mission undertaken by this aircraft was followed up by one led by Charles W. Sweeney aboard Bockscar. A Boeing B-29 Superfortress, this aircraft was piloted by Paul Tibbets. For the point, "Little Boy" was carried aboard what aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? | Enola Gay |
| A Jeffrey K. Smith book titled for this quote notes how its speaker carried a comb and Lifesavers in his pocket while undertaking the central mission. This four-word quote was provided after its speaker acknowledged "Houston" and stated, "Tranquility base here." That man went on to take "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." For the point, name this quote by Neil Armstrong, indicating that a certain vehicle had safely made it to the lunar surface. | "The Eagle Has Landed" (accept The Eagle Has Landed: The Story of Apollo 11) |
| Robert Selway served as a commanding officer of this group, whose instructor "Chief" Anderson once accompanied a First Lady on a flight. The Freeman Field Mutiny involved members of this group, among whom was Coleman Young, a future mayor of Detroit. The 332nd and 477th Groups made up this unit, which operated out of Moton Field. Sometimes known as the "Red Tails," this group sometimes faced Jim Crow laws. For the point, name this group of World War Two African American pilots. | Tuskegee Airmen (accept Red Tails before mentioned; accept 332nd Fighter Group before mentioned; accept 477th Bombardment Group before mentioned) |
| Twenty-four of these vehicles were purchased by the Libyan Air Force in 1976, after which 16 were sold to the UAE for nearly $1 billion. One of these vehicles known as The Survivor was the only one of four of these vehicles that was not destroyed during an attack on the Atlantic Conveyor. In the U.S. military, this vehicle replaced the Mojave, which was manufactured by Sikorsky. Using a tandem rotor design, this is, for the point, what Boeing helicopter, designated CH-47, that shares its name with a people of the Pacific Northwest? | Boeing Chinook CH-47 (accept Boeing Chinook CH-47 before mentioned; accept Boeing Chinook HC6A) |
| A Special Attack Force assigned to carry out these actions had their unit names taken from a poem about the "soul of [a place]... Glowing in the morning sun." Outdated technology and industrial capacity declines contributed to the decision to carry out these actions, variants of which included the "body attack." The Bushido code inspired these attacks, two of which resulted in nearly 400 casualties aboard the USS Bunker Hill. With a name meaning "divine wind," for the point, what were these suicide attacks carried out by Japanese pilots? | Kamikaze (prompt on "Japanese fighter suicide attacks" and similar answers) |
| At this battle, a bomber that killed 24 men aboard the USS South Dakota was claimed to have escaped by witnesses of the Alabama, contrary to reports that it was shot down. The USS Cavalla torpedoed the Shokaku at this battle, before which Admiral Soemu Toyoda stated, "The fate of the Empire rests on this one battle." The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot occurred during this battle fought in 1944. For the point, name this Pacific battle fought east of an archipelago containing Luzon. | Battle of the Philippine Sea (prompt on "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot") |
| Brian Shul's book Sled Driver chronicles his experiences flying this aircraft. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson built on his experiences with the Kingfisher and A-12 when designing this aircraft, which is sometimes nicknamed "Habu." In Call of Duty: Black Ops, this vehicle serves as a killstreak at eight kills, allowing players to see enemy motion in real-time. Capable of flying over Mach 3, this aircraft was never shot down while engaging in reconnaissance missions. For the point, name this high-altitude jet, designed by Lockheed and sometimes known as the Blackbird. | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (accept Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird before "Blackbird" is mentioned; accept Habu before mentioned) |
| In 2013, an electrical fire aboard an empty one of these aircraft forced its grounding at Logan Airport. Five hundred thousand votes cast for the naming of this airline included such titles as Global Cruiser. Notably containing four cockpit windows, this aircraft made its maiden commercial voyage out of Narita Airport in Tokyo. In 2009, this aircraft made its first flight out of a field in Everett, Washington. For the point, name this jet airliner by Boeing, sometimes called the Dreamliner. | Boeing 787 Dreamliner (accept Dreamliner before mentioned; accept Boeing 7E7) |
| Two days after this event occurred through the end of the month, the New York Times mentioned the central object on 279 occasions. VNIIT developed a trio of zinc-powered batteries for this event, which occurred two years after Dwight Eisenhower announced that one goal would be accomplished in the International Geophysical Year. Moonwatch teams observed this event, which triggered a namesake U.S. crisis. The central object of this event, which contained four antennae, lost contact on October 26, 1957. For the point, name this first launch of a satellite into space. | Launch of Sputnik I [[ONE]] (accept Sputnik Crisis; accept clear-knowledge equivalents for "Launch") |
| In a promotional film, the construction of this international airport was described as "concrete like heavy lava." In 1915, Richard Fairey set up a testing facility roughly six miles from what later became this airport. During a February 7, 1952 flight, this airport received the Atalanta, which carried a royal with a new title. Stansted and Gatwick are located close to this airport, out of which Virgin Atlantic primarily operates. For the point, name this airport serving England's capital. | London Heathrow (accept Heathrow Airport; accept LHR; accept EGLL) |
| Elwood Richard Quesada was the first head of this organization, which is currently led by Billy Nolen. The WINGS training program consists of volunteers who work in tandem with this organization's Safety Team. In response to incidents involving Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX flights, this organization found "no systemic performance issues... to order grounding the aircraft." Headquartered on Independence Avenue, this organization is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. For the point, name this regulatory administration of the U.S. | FAA (or Federal Aviation Administration) |
| One airport in this city is named for a "triple ace" of the Korean War, Colonel James Jabara. Oaklawn and Hilltop were among the neighborhoods established in this city to boost factory production during World War Two. McConnell Air Force Base serves as a strategic refueling location near this city, whose main airport is named for Dwight Eisenhower. Hawker Beechcraft and Spirit Aerosystems are among the largest employers of this "Air Capital of the World." For the point, name this large city in Kansas. | Wichita |
| Perkin-Elmer's use of a null corrector during one phase of this object's development contributed to an error of which Lew Allen of JPL was the lead investigator. The STS-31 mission led to the deployment of this entity from the shuttle Discovery, an effort that had been delayed due to the Challenger disaster. A nearly 8-foot mirror is used by this object, whose instruments can observe near-infrared and other non-visible light. For the point, name this space telescope, which is named for an American astronomer. | Hubble Space Telescope (prompt on "HST") |
| Just prior to this event, its central figure broke two ribs in a horse riding incident, prompting Jack Ridley to design a broom handle-containing device to help him close his aircraft. This event occurred over Rogers Dry Lake, and the central figure in this event was allegedly selected after "Slick" Goodlin asked for $150,000 to complete it. This event, which occurred in 1947, made use of a Bell X-1 aircraft known as the Glamorous Glennis. For the point, name this event in which Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager achieved a speed above Mach 1. | Breaking the Sound Barrier (accept Going faster than or equivalents in place of Breaking; accept Speed of Sound or equivalents in place of Sound Barrier; accept Mach 1 in place of Sound Barrier before mentioned) |
| After making the key observation in this event, its central figure contacted Nevil Maskelyne [[MASS-keh-lin]] who replied, "I don't know what to call it." A journal entry about this event notes an observation "In the quartile near [Zeta] Tauri." The name Georgium Sidus was given to the central object in this event to honor patron George III [[the Third]]. This event occurred while one man was searching for a comet in 1781. For the point, name this event in which William Herschel found the seventh planet from the Sun. | Discovery of Uranus (accept reasonable equivalents for Discovery) |
| After a coup in this nation, Embraer [[ehm-brah-EHR]] was established as a government-owned aerospace manufacturer. One man from this country gained fame after his namesake Airship No. 6 circled the Eiffel Tower. That aviator, Alberto Santos-Dumont, was born into a coffee-producing family in this country. A desire "to bring progress to the interior of [this country]" contributed to the decision to lay out an airplane design in the capital of this country by Oscar Niemeyer. For the point, name this South American country whose Galeão [[gah-LEH-ao]] International Airport serves Rio de Janeiro. | Federative Republic of Brazil (or Republica Federativa do Brasil) |
| In 1987, this airline acquired another that used the slogan "The Only Way to Fly!" The aforementioned Western Airlines was bought by this airline, which, in 1941, moved its headquarters to its current location from Monroe. A forerunner to this airline originally operated the Huff-Daland Duster to combat boll weevil cotton infestations around cities like Macon. That occurred before C.E. Woolman named this airline for a region between the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers. For the point, name this airline whose main hub is in Atlanta. | Delta Air Lines, Inc. |
| The film used to take this photo was driven four hours away to R & R PhotoTechnics to expedite its processing. Frank Borman humorously warned the photographer of this work against taking it because "it's not scheduled." A postage stamp that used this photograph includes the phrase "In the beginning God..." Referred to as "the most influential environmental photograph," this image was shot by William Anders. Taken during the Apollo 8 mission, for the point, what is this photograph taken from the moon and showing the third planet from the Sun in the background? | Earthrise (accept answers such as "photograph of Earth taken from the Moon or taken during the Apollo 8 mission" and similar answers and prompt after Apollo 8 or Moon are mentioned) |
| This man's father, Ned, was a Wake Island airstrip worker who was captured and spent four years as a Japanese POW. This author posed the question "Do humans have a destiny in space?" in his book Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World. During a conversation with Carl Sagan, this man was advised to focus on pure science rather than technology since young people gravitated toward the former. This man compares Jupiter to a blender in an episode of his self-titled television program. For the point, name this television presenter known as "the Science Guy." | Bill Nye (or William Sanford Nye; accept Bill Nye the Science Guy; prompt on "Science Guy" before mentioned) |
| Paul Mantz and Harry Manning accompanied this figure and another navigator during an effort cut short after a ground loop damaged the vehicle during a takeoff attempt at Luke Field. A Lockheed Model 10-E Electra was used by this first head of the Ninety-Nines in an effort assisted by Fred Noonan. Howland Island was the intended destination of one leg of that 1937 effort conducted by this aviatrix. For the point, name this aviator who disappeared while trying to circumnavigate the world. | Amelia Mary Earhart |
| Peter Bergen claimed that, after a change of administration, the frequency of these events went from once every 43 days to once every three or four days. One of these events occurred just before Adil Abdul-Mahdi was to meet a leader of the Quds Force. Nawaz Sharif said these were "a continual violation of [his country's] territorial integrity." The subject of the book Hunters in the Sky, one of these events resulted in the killing of Qasem Soleimani. For the point, name these targeted attacks carried out by certain unmanned flying vehicles. | Drone Strikes |