Q 01/05

Beside which Moscow landmark did West German teenager Mathias Rust land a rented Cessna 172 in May 1987?

A) Gorky Park

B) Red Square

C) Sparrow Hills

D) Bolshoi Theatre

Answer · why

B) Red Square

Red Square was his target, but crowds forced Rust onto a bridge beside it, where passers-by asked for autographs. He was arrested two hours later.

Q 02/05

How did the two pilots of a Cessna 172 take on fuel during their record 64-day flight in 1958–59?

A) From a speeding truck

B) From a tanker aircraft

C) From a hovering helicopter

D) From a moving train

Answer · why

A) From a speeding truck

From a speeding truck: flying low over a straight desert road, the crew winched up a hose and filled a tank in the plane's belly.

Q 03/05

Which former heavyweight boxing champion died in 1969 when a Cessna 172 crashed short of an Iowa airfield?

A) Sonny Liston

B) Jersey Joe Walcott

C) Rocky Marciano

D) Jack Dempsey

Answer · why

C) Rocky Marciano

Rocky Marciano, who retired unbeaten after 49 professional fights, was a passenger bound for Des Moines when the plane hit a tree, the day before his ...

Q 04/05

Which Soviet leader used a teenager's 1987 Cessna 172 flight to Moscow as grounds to fire his defence minister?

A) Leonid Brezhnev

B) Konstantin Chernenko

C) Boris Yeltsin

D) Mikhail Gorbachev

Answer · why

D) Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev dismissed Defence Minister Sergei Sokolov and hundreds of officers, clearing out opponents of his reforms after the plane slipped pa...

Q 05/05

Why does the Cessna 172 line jump from the 172N straight to the 172P, with no 172O?

A) A prototype 172O crashed

B) Piper had trademarked it

C) O could be mistaken for zero

D) It was kept for exports

Answer · why

C) O could be mistaken for zero

O could be mistaken for zero, so Cessna never built a 172O. The 172P that followed in 1981 swapped out the 172N's engine, which had proven unreliable.