Test your knowledge of aviation history highlights

Flight Tests | Quiz

Test your flight knowledge!

ExxonMobil’s commitment to the aviation industry dates back to the very first Wright Brothers flight. Take our ExxonMobil Aviation quiz and test your knowledge of some aviation history highlights from the past 120 years.

What Mobil Oil predecessor was used in the Wright Brothers' first fateful flight on December 17, 1903?

(check one)

a. Banshee Mobiloil

b. Pegasus Mobiloil

c. Gargoyle Mobiloil

d. Werewolf Mobiloil

Famed aviator Ruth Law wrote, “Although offered free oil from many concerns, I prefer to buy and pay for Gargoyle Mobiloil.” Why was she famous?

(check one)

a. She set the cross-America speed record in 1916

b. She was the first woman to execute an aerial loop

c. She invented the biplane

d. She was the first mechanic to specialize in airplanes

What was the point of embarkation (and disembarkation) for the first round-the-world flight on April 6, 1924?

(check one)

a. London, England

b. Chicago, Illinois

c. Osaka, Japan

d. Seattle, Washington

Australian Captain Sir Hubert Wilkins insisted on Mobiloil for his historic 1928 flights to draw the first accurate maps of what?

(check one)

a. Alaska

b. Antarctica

c. The Sahara Desert

d. Various Pacific Islands

How did “Wrong Way” Corrigan get his nickname?

(check one)

a. He was the first pilot to figure out how to fly upside down.

b. He claimed to have flown from New York to Ireland (rather than California) “by accident” due to the weather conditions.

c. He developed a more accurate, upside-down gyroscope that reversed the ground and sky.

d. An early barnstormer stunt where he managed to land his biplane backwards.

In 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager successfully completed the first non-stop round-the-world flight. What was the name of their one-of-a-kind aircraft?

(check one)

a. Indomitable

b. The Greater Rhea

c. Theo Meotori

d. Voyager

You’ve taken a walk-through aviation history!

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For more than 100 years, Mobil oil has been trusted around the world. ExxonMobil Aviation fuels and lubricants products have been chosen for some of history’s most celebrated aircraft and space programs. Try our quiz to see what you may know about iconic moments for Mobil oil in aviation.

Hiram Everest founded the Vacuum Oil Company in 1866, and would go on to produce motor oil used by pioneering aviators The Wright Brothers, Thomas Sopwith, Glenn Curtiss, Ruth Law and Katherine Stinson. But his product was very expensive, and early on his sales team complained about being undercut by cheaper oils. His response, and justification, eventually made it into tributes to his brilliance written after his death. What was it?

(check one)

a. “A. B. C. — Always Be Closing.”

b. “We don’t pander to cheapskates.”

c. “It’s my way or the skyway, I mean, highway.”

d. “Quality will win. Believe it.”

At the dawn of aviation, Mobiloil quickly established itself as the best lubricant in the aviation business, favored by daredevils, businessmen, and engineers alike. In the 1920s and 1930s, 31% of aircraft builders, and 46% of aircraft engine manufacturers, did what to indicate their preference?

(check one)

a. Attached a plate to their products recommending Mobiloil.

b. Designed their machines so they would only work with Mobiloil products.

c. Bought up the world’s supply to Mobiloil, hoarding it for themselves.

d. Wrote letters to Mobiloil’s manufacturers asking them to lower their standards so they didn’t have to work so hard to keep up.

Aviators Katherine Stinson and Ruth Law both published glowing reviews of Mobiloil and insisted on using it in their aircraft (writing “I have yet to find an oil that has the body and durability of Gargoyle Mobiloil A”) despite what?

(check one)

a. Because of its popularity, Mobiloil was very difficult to find in stock.

b. Because of the alcohol used in the manufacturing process, Mobiloil was illegal in some states.

c. Many competing manufacturers offered products to aviators, but Mobil didn’t supply free oil in exchange for testimonials.

d. Early Mobiloil had a strong odor that was very difficult to wash out of flight suits.

In 1938, famed tycoon, filmmaker and aviator Howard Hughes — with the help of Mobiloil — managed to pull off WHAT stunt in just three days, nineteen hours, and seventeen minutes?

(check one)

a. Manufacture 100 functional commercial airplanes.

b. Circumnavigate the globe (cutting the previous record in half).

c. Film an entire feature-length movie entirely in the air.

d. Give live radio interviews in San Francisco, New York, and London.

When launched in March of 1963, Mobil Oil Jet™ II provided unprecedented thermal and oxidation stability while retaining viscosity and film strength at both high and low temperatures. What outside-the-box imagery did Mobil use in their ad campaign to emphasize its low consumption?

(check one)

a. A red can of Mobiloil with wings.

b. A teacup full of Mobiloil.

c. A water-balloon full of Mobiloil.

d. A Boeing 747 landing on a can of Mobiloil.

The Boeing 747, perhaps the most famous commercial airplane in the world and one of the most iconic pieces of engineering in history, was considered a risky, if not foolish, venture when it went into service for Pan Am in 1970 (fully lubricated by Mobil Jet™ Oil II). Why?

(check one)

a. People thought it was ugly.

b. Experts thought Supersonic Travel (SST) was the way of the future.

c. Superstitious passengers didn’t think a plane that big could stay in the sky.

d. Investors thought that long-distance air travel was a passing fad.

NASA chose Mobil Jet Oil II for the space shuttle Columbia in its launch on April 12th, 1981, and again in its launch in November of the same year. Aside from the general impressiveness of human beings traveling safely into space, why was this significant?

(check one)

a. It was the first time NASA managed to reuse a spacecraft on multiple missions.

b. It paved the way for the construction of the International Space Station (ISS), in which the Columbia played a key role.

c. Mobil Jet Oil II beat out ten leading synthetic engine oils, also tested by NASA, for this prestigious responsibility.

d. All of the above.

Magnolia Oil Company placed the rotating Pegasus sign (pictured) above its headquarters in a famous, historic, and proud American city that has played a key role in not only American aviation, but American engineering. What city?

(check one)

a. Houston, Texas

b. Seattle, Washington

c. Orlando, Florida

d. Chicago, Illinois

You’ve taken a walk-through Mobil oil aviation history!