Remember the famous Dolittle riad (WWII) on Tokyo? Army AF general James Dolittle got the navy to allow the launching of Army bombers from the carrier Wasp. the raid was a success…in spite of the fact that experts thought the feat impossible. Could this be done today, with a B-1 bomber? Would the navy allow it? Could the planes be recovered (land) on the carrier?
In Arresting Gear parlance, this is known as a two-block (the travelling end of the cylinder makes contact with the fixed end). As you can imagine, it fucks the gear for a fare-thee-well. Did the cable hold? I would have expected a wire failure in either the CDP (cross-deck pendant), the socket holding the CDP to the wire, or the wire itself.
ABE3 Zakalwe
Doolittle’s planes were not launched; they took off normally, taking advantage of a strong wind and the * USS Hornet’s* own headway. They then flew on toward bases in China, never intending or able to land back on the carrier deck. They were initially loaded on the carrier by crane.
A B-1 could never match the takeoff run of a B-25, even with no payload. Landing is similarly impossible.
Inflight refueling made such foolhardiness unnecessary. B-1’s operating over Afghanistan and Iraq flew from Diego Garcia, a British island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. B-2’s flew their missions round-trip from Whiteman AFB, Missouri.
The largest plane landed and launched from a carrier was a C-130 back in 1963.
Zakalwe, I’m not completely certain where the failure was but there was no cable on the deck after the incident and I can’t even remember if we ever got a functioning four wire during the rest of the cruise. I have to admit I wasn’t watching the wire as the plane went over the edge but I think it took the whole thing with it as I’m sure a breaking cable would have been pretty obvious snapping back.
ralph124c, almost certainly not. There have been some non-carrier aircraft such as a C-130 and U-2 that have been tested on carriers but not using the launch or arresting gear. I’m pretty certain the B-1 would be an impossibility for several reasons. Even if the right wing cleared the island there is no place to attach the launch or arresting gear to the plane. The B-1 is a pretty sturdy airplane but launches and arrests put massive loads on the airframe that it was never designed to handle. Putting enough force on the nose gear to launch it in two seconds would probably tear it from the fuselage. Landing? Never mind the arresting gear. Carrier planes do not land with a gengle flare and touchdown. The glideslope intersects the deck at a pretty high angle which would destroy a plane not designed for that stress. Oh, one other small detail. The empty weight of a B-1 is more than twice that of an A-3 whale at gross. Fully loaded the B-1 is nearly six times as heavy. The catapult pistons and arresting gear engines would have to be much more massive and the gossamer, two-inch arresting gear cable would need to be a bit thicker so it doesn’t snap like a guitar string.
sewalk, you know whay aviators drag knuckles don’t you? Those goddamn heavy Speedmaster watches. They need them to compensate for the small IFR probe. The reason they don’t justr drag the left hand knuckles is because they transfer urine to maintain trim. 
Sounds dangerous, though. Better hang a safety flag on the back.
Didn’t they only do that once? Took a while to take off though. About 20 minutes if I recall.
Read the cite :rolleyes:
29 touch and goes, 21 unarrested landings, 21 unassisted takeoffs.
Whoosh!
Serious whoosh!
That’s exactly what a touch and go sounds like as the plane goes by, whoosh… oh :smack:
<cocks 1960s style, navy issue Mk1 mod 0 death ray>
[nitpick]
When talking thrust on jet engines, be sure you are talking ‘static’ thrust, which is a bit different than Max thrust and stuff and such.
Stationary jet engines don’t really push as hard as most think.
[/nitpick]
Okay, you probably had a catastrophic cable failure due to the two-block. My guess would be that the cable failed between the engine and the deck with the a/c pulling the remaining cable over the side. The deck was probably ripped up due to a failure on the deck sheaves (sp? The big wheels that change the cables direction). You didn’t see lashback because it occured below deck.
If memory serves (my books are packed up): 1 5/16 for the main cable, 1 7/8 for the CDP (both braided steel rope with a hemp core).