Quiz of the Day
Aviation & Flight
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Sally Ride Day — women in space, aviation firsts, flight records
1. Who was the first American woman in space?
- Valentina Tereshkova
- Mae Jemison
- Sally Ride
- Christa McAuliffe
Sally Ride flew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on 18 June 1983 at the age of 32, making her the youngest American astronaut in space at the time. She was also a physicist who had answered a newspaper advert for astronaut candidates.
2. Who was the very first woman in space, flying in 1963?
- Sally Ride
- Valentina Tereshkova
- Svetlana Savitskaya
- Eileen Collins
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth 48 times over nearly three days aboard Vostok 6. She was a textile factory worker and amateur parachutist before being selected. No other woman flew in space for another 19 years.
3. What was the name of the aircraft the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk in 1903?
- The Flyer
- The Spirit
- The Eagle
- The Condor
The Wright Flyer's first flight lasted just 12 seconds and covered 37 metres — shorter than the wingspan of a modern Boeing 747 (64 metres). The brothers made four flights that day before a gust of wind flipped and destroyed the aircraft.
4. What is the speed of sound at sea level, often called Mach 1?
- 967 mph
- 767 mph
- 1,167 mph
- 567 mph
Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on 14 October 1947 in the Bell X-1, which he named 'Glamorous Glennis' after his wife. He did it with two broken ribs from a horse-riding accident, using a broomstick handle to close the cockpit door.
5. Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?
- Amelia Earhart
- Amy Johnson
- Bessie Coleman
- Harriet Quimby
Amelia Earhart completed her solo Atlantic crossing on 20 May 1932, exactly five years after Lindbergh's flight. She landed in a farmer's field in Northern Ireland. When asked where she was from, she replied, 'From America.'
6. What is the highest altitude ever reached by a manned balloon flight?
- 16 miles (26 km)
- 31 miles (50 km)
- 24 miles (39 km)
- 10 miles (16 km)
Felix Baumgartner reached 39 km in a helium balloon in 2012 before jumping out and free-falling back to Earth, breaking the sound barrier with his body. Google executive Alan Eustace later beat the record at 41 km in 2014, though with less publicity.
7. Which aircraft was known as the 'Queen of the Skies'?
- Airbus A380
- Concorde
- Boeing 747
- Boeing 777
The Boeing 747 revolutionised air travel when it entered service in 1970, making flying affordable for ordinary people. Its distinctive hump was originally designed so the nose could swing open for cargo loading — Boeing expected supersonic jets to replace it within a decade.
8. Who was the first African-American woman to travel to space?
- Joan Higginbotham
- Mae Jemison
- Stephanie Wilson
- Jeanette Epps
Mae Jemison flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in September 1992. She is also a trained medical doctor and engineer, served in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and was inspired to become an astronaut partly by watching Nichelle Nichols as Uhura on Star Trek.
9. What was Concorde's cruising speed?
- Mach 1.7
- Mach 2.8
- Mach 1.2
- Mach 2.04
Concorde could fly from London to New York in under 3.5 hours — faster than the Earth rotates, meaning you could arrive before you departed in local time. The aircraft's nose drooped during takeoff and landing so pilots could see the runway.
10. Who was the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic?
- Amelia Earhart
- Alcock and Brown
- Charles Lindbergh
- Louis Blériot
Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours in May 1927. To save weight, he carried no radio, no parachute, and no forward-facing window. He navigated using a periscope and dead reckoning.
11. What was the first woman pilot Bessie Coleman's nickname?
- The Flying Duchess
- Queen Bess
- The Sky Queen
- Lady Lindy
Bessie Coleman was the first African-American and first Native American woman to hold a pilot's licence. No American flight school would accept her because of her race and gender, so she taught herself French and went to France to learn to fly in 1921.
12. How long was Yuri Gagarin's historic first human spaceflight in 1961?
- 24 hours
- 3 hours
- 48 minutes
- 108 minutes
Gagarin's single orbit of Earth aboard Vostok 1 lasted just 108 minutes. He ejected from the capsule at 7 km altitude and parachuted down separately — a fact the Soviet Union initially concealed because FAI rules required pilots to land inside their craft.
13. Which British woman set the record for the fastest solo flight from England to Australia in 1930?
- Jean Batten
- Sheila Scott
- Amy Johnson
- Beryl Markham
Amy Johnson flew solo from Croydon to Darwin in 19.5 days in her Gipsy Moth 'Jason', becoming a national heroine at age 26. She had only gained her pilot's licence the year before and was the first woman to earn a ground engineer's licence.
14. What is the fastest manned aircraft ever flown?
- SR-71 Blackbird
- F-22 Raptor
- MiG-25 Foxbat
- X-15
The North American X-15 reached 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7) in October 1967 with pilot Pete Knight at the controls. The aircraft's skin reached temperatures of 650°C during flight. Several X-15 pilots qualified as astronauts by exceeding 80 km altitude.
15. Who was the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission?
- Shannon Lucid
- Kathryn Sullivan
- Peggy Whitson
- Eileen Collins
Eileen Collins commanded Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-93 in July 1999. She was also the first female Space Shuttle pilot. Collins credits her career to the Mercury 13 — thirteen women who passed astronaut tests in the 1960s but were barred from flying because of their gender.