Q 01/05

Which June 1942 carrier battle cost Japan four aircraft carriers and turned the tide of the Pacific war?

A) Guadalcanal

B) Leyte Gulf

C) Midway

D) Santa Cruz

Answer · why

C) Midway

Midway Airport took the name in 1949, seven years after Navy dive bombers wrecked all four enemy carriers, three of them inside six minutes.

Q 02/05

Which country's navy acquired the unfinished Soviet carrier Varyag via a firm claiming to plan a floating casino?

A) China

B) India

C) Brazil

D) Thailand

Answer · why

A) China

China had the rusting hull towed from Ukraine, rebuilt it and commissioned it in 2012 as Liaoning, the first aircraft carrier its navy ever operated.

Q 03/05

Which future US president flew Avenger torpedo bombers from a carrier and was shot down near Chichi Jima in 1944?

A) John F. Kennedy

B) Lyndon B. Johnson

C) Dwight D. Eisenhower

D) George H. W. Bush

Answer · why

D) George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush, one of the Navy's youngest pilots, bailed out over the sea and was picked up by the submarine USS Finback; both of his crewmen died...

Q 04/05

Which four-engine transport plane became the largest aircraft ever to land on a carrier during 1963 Navy trials?

A) C-54 Skymaster

B) C-130 Hercules

C) P-3 Orion

D) C-141 Starlifter

Answer · why

B) C-130 Hercules

The C-130 Hercules made 21 full-stop landings on USS Forrestal with no arresting gear, then took off again each time without a catapult.

Q 05/05

On which of the Great Lakes did the converted side-wheel steamers USS Wolverine and USS Sable train carrier pilots?

A) Michigan

B) Erie

C) Superior

D) Huron

Answer · why

A) Michigan

Michigan's two freshwater flattops, nicknamed the Corn Belt Fleet, trained some 17,000 pilots, signal officers and deck crew by the end of World War I...