"GALLOPING GOOSE."

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 188, 11 August 1925, Page 13

"GALLOPING GOOSE."

MONOPLANE ON MISSISSIPPI.

TAKES « STAR " OVER CITY. PHOT INTO THE AIR. "The Galloping Goose' , is the com- '■ plement's name for the monoplane! carried by the Mississippi. All the yes- j sels carry aircraft, but the only mono- j plane with the fleet is that on the Mississippi. It is a reconnoitring craft, not I a fighting plane, but. the officers and! men on the battleship are proud of her, ; though dubbed with a not altogether. flattering appelation. When catapulted into the air. however, she belies the un-; gainliness which one might associate. with the goose, and she soared over the ■ Waitemata with bird-like precision. ! The ordinary method of unloading a j seaplane from a battleship is to shoot! them off a cradle lying parallel with the' ship's deck by means of compressed air. ] The "Galloping Goos%" however, is j truly shot into the air. Instead of com- [ pressed air powder is utilised. A! cartridge about 30 inches long is in- 1 serted in a gun alongside the cradle,! and when the plane has speeded up to | a great rate the signal is given and the I cartridge fired. The cradle has been j faced out with the "Goose's" beak into i the wind, and barely has the explosion occurred before the monoplane is soaring in the air. It is claimed that the j Mississippi has the only device in the i world for so catapulting a plane. By j courtesy of Admiral Robison a '"Star" j reporter was privileged to make a flight over the harbour in the monoplane ac soon as the pilot launch reached the', Mississippi. |