At least that’s what he told us once. He was some manner of deck crewman or aircraft maintenance guy. Not a flyer. But a cool dude who lived through some seriously interesting history. And some serious shit.
You’d need to have tiedowns of some sort on deck, because otherwise the aircraft could be knocked off during rough seas even without doing the windmilling thing.
Elendil’s Heir, there’s no such thing as “too massive to be moved”. F = ma, so a very massive carrier would only get a very small acceleration from the force of the plane engines, but a small acceleration can be enough, for low-speed maneuvers like docking. On land, friction would probably dominate, but friction works differently in the water, and in a way that depends on speed, so again, low speeds are doable.
It was only six months between the Pearl Harbor attack and the Battle of Midway; I don’t recall any significant weather incidents during the period. More likely it was Halsey’s Typhoon (December 1944) that was depicted, or his second weather gaffe, typhoon Connie (June 1945).
Its been a few decades since I last saw this movie and finally got a chance to view it again. Some scenes I had completely forgotten about such as the docking aided by the Skyraiders. Anyway, I found this link that goes into some detail about the actual mission that inspired Michener to write his book:
It’s hard on the engines in that they are running. They only have a limited number of hours before the engine has to be removed and rebuilt. (And they are using up their limited run time without bombing enemies.)
Also, this use would tend to be a bit harder on the engines, in that they wer probably running constantly at full speed, with limited airflow for cooling, and at a higher temperature than when thousands of feet up in the air.
It also makes things tricky for the shirtless bald guy with the handlebar moustache who’s tasked with fist-fighting any potential aircraft thieves.
I didn’t think this was possible, or that someone would even try.
What would happen if the airplanes were on treadmills?
The only thing I remember from that movie was Mickey Rooney’s stupid hat.
The US never used shirtless bald mustachioed fistfighting aircraft mechanics/guards. You’re thinking of the Nazis, and they retired theirs after an unfortunate incident in North Africa. I believe Steven Spielberg made a documentary about that event.
I’d been aboard Enterprise about 3 months at the time but in the immortal (immoral?) words of sailors when stuff hits the fan: It didn’t happen on my watch!
Per the article, the ship was at the conclusion of its deployment and the air wing had flow off (save for a helicopter) so there were no heavy aircraft to reposition. As is custom when entering port, the crew was on the flight deck “manning the rail” and were available to move to the port side in an attempt to free the ship (it didn’t work). We had to wait for the rising tide to lift the ship. I recall the investigation said that heavy spring rains washed excessive silt into the channel. Rather than being a career-ender, Captain Kelly eventually rose to four-star admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet.
Coincidently, I was still assigned to but not aboard Enterprise when she scraped Bishop’s Rock in the fall of 1985 during flight operations. Seeing an aircraft carrier up on blocks in dry dock for repairs is quite a sight. I left active duty shortly thereafter (obviously not connected) but I see that the Captain was relieved and don’t believe his career continued.
(Go Navy Beat Army)