Launch Bar available?

[Harlikwin]

On 12/28/2021 at 8:59 PM, AG-51_Razor said:

My Dad was the first Flight Deck officer for the new Yorktown CV-10, a plank holder, and said that this hanger deck catapult was used just a time or two during the shake down cruise to prove that it worked but never again. He told me that the pilot that went out that hanger door had told him it was the most terrifying thing he had ever done as a Naval Aviator!!

 

Holy cow that's awesome and terrifying. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Harlikwin

[AG-51_Razor]

Yeah, it's scary just looking at the picture!!

[Andrew8604]

On 12/28/2021 at 7:59 PM, AG-51_Razor said:

My Dad was the first Flight Deck officer for the new Yorktown CV-10, a plank holder, and said that this hanger deck catapult was used just a time or two during the shake down cruise to prove that it worked but never again. He told me that the pilot that went out that hanger door had told him it was the most terrifying thing he had ever done as a Naval Aviator!!

Then I think about those that launched off the midship or fantail of cruisers and battleships in the SOC Seagull, OS2U Kingfisher and SO3C Seamew.

My dad watched several OS2U's launch from the USS Salt Lake City CA-25 in 1945.  And the recoveries.  The ship would turn and make a smooth patch of sea (inside of its arc) for the plane to land on.  Then it would taxi alongside, onto a "sled" towed by the ship and be hoisted up by crane back aboard, with crew in it.  It was launched by something like a black powder cartridge.

That would be pretty cool to fly the OS2U in DCS.  Cruise at 130 kts.  Land on the sea at 50 kts.  Carry a couple M30 100 lb GP bombs, or depth bombs.    No, I don't expect to see it.

[AG-51_Razor]

The "sled" you're referring to was nothing more than a large net with a wooden pole attached to the leading edge. The pontoon had a hook on the forward part of the keel and once the plane has taxied up over the net, the pilot would back off the throttle to allow the hook to catch the net. It seems to me that as a float plane pilot back then, you had to be almost as much a seaman as a pilot in order to survive!