UPSC Prelims 2016 GS Paper I · Q47 of 100 General Science easy

What is 'Greased Lightning-10 (GL-10)', recently in the news?

  1. (a) Electric plane tested by NASA ✓ UPSC's answer
  2. (b) Solar-powered two-seater aircraft designed by Japan
  3. (c) Space observatory launched by China
  4. (d) Reusable rocket designed by ISRO

Why the answer is (a)

• Greased Lightning GL-10 was a battery-powered, ten-engine, tilt-wing prototype drone built and flight-tested by NASA's Langley Research Center in 2014–15; it takes off vertically like a helicopter and flies like a plane — option (a).

• Solar Impulse (b) was a Swiss solar aircraft; China's space observatories and ISRO's RLV-TD (d) are unrelated.

• Hence option (a).

Why the other options are wrong

(b) Solar-powered two-seater aircraft designed by Japan
GL-10 is American and electric, not Japanese solar.
(c) Space observatory launched by China
It is an aircraft, not a space observatory.
(d) Reusable rocket designed by ISRO
It is not an ISRO rocket.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2016, held on 7 August 2016. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

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