When The Navy Takes The Air

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 51, 1 March 1941, Page 1 (Supplement)

When The Navy Takes The Air

A IRCRAFT carriers are really l\ the homes of naval aviators, although all our big ships, down to light cruisers, carry catapults from which seaplanes are launched. But the big aircraft carrier is a type apart.

Today H.M. Aircraft Carrier Illustrious, and the ships which are following in her class, are warships of the utmost importance, which may come to be regarded as capital ships. And, incidentally, although an aircraft carrier is* H.M.S., the carrier people like to he addressed H.M.A.C.

The aircraft carrier of to-day is a curious craft. It lias a long, flat upper deck, known as the flying deck, which curls downward at each end. Wh:it ■would normally be the bridge and the smokestack and the signalling masts and so forth are all built over ore sidp. That leaves practically the whole deck free for taking off and landing on by aeroplanes, for the aircraft which are carried in the carriers have ordinary landing wheels like landpi anes.-> 'T&een Decks Hangars At each end of the flying deck is a lift, on which the aeroplanes which have landed are taken down to the deck- below into what, a relic of the parly flying days, are called the hangars. Because of the necessarily limited size of the lifts, all aeroplanes in carriers have to lie built so that the wings fold, just like the wings of (=fhnol aeroplanes, which most people have s-pen at flying clubs. And designing wings which will fold and will Pt.aiir] up to the heavy load at high epeods of big torpedo carriers is nue engineering. These farriers are big ships of round about 22.000 tons and of about 100,000 horsepower. And they carry quite a lot of aeroplanes. For instance, H.M.S. Glorious, which was sunk off the coast of Norway last year, carried in 1938 (I must not say what she was carrying last year) one squadron of single-scat biplane fleet fighters, one squadron of fleet torpedo bombers, which are quite big single-motor aeroplanes, and two squadrons of fleet homlicr - reconnaissance aeroplanes, which are fairly fast two-scat biplanes, which, with reserves, probably meant fiitv aeroplanes. I "fit II I hilt date nil the Fleet Air Ann lindanes had been biplane's, because they iha.<L.bo-4iit~big, loads.-and

Not alone by its epic feats off Norway during that tragic campaign or in the marvellous Taranto raid, the Fleet Air Arm has won the admiration of the Empire and of the world. Its day by day work in all the theatres of sea warfare is every bit as impressive as that of its brother service—the R.A.F. But it has the navy tradition of silence. In this article, taken from the "Sunday Express," a story of Britain's aircraft carriers is told.

By C. G. Grey

therefore needed big wings and the wings had to fold. But in that year the Blackburn Skua dive bomber monoplane was adopted by the Navy. We have heard quite a lot about it in official communiques of the past eight months, especially in use from laud bases against Channel embarkation ports.

More recently the Navy has adopted the Fairey Fulmar, a two-seat fighter which is quite fast and well able to tackle any fighters which any foreign country could send up against carrierborne aeroplanes such as those which attacked the Italians at Taranto.

The torpedo carrier used to-day is the Fairey Albacore, a big biplane ■which has great lifting power.

The procedure of launching an attack from a carrier is roughly as follows: —

The aeroplanes which are to attack are brought up by the lifts from the hangars ready bombed and armed. Their wings are spread, and they are assembled at the aft end of the flying deck. Eight in the middle of the forward end of the flying deck is a small hole from which a plume of steam is ejected, which indicates whether the ship is being held true into the wind.

A big aeroplane carrying a full-size torpedo needs a lot of air to lift it. The speed of the carrier therefore is pushed up so that, added to the speed of the wind against the ship, the aeroplane running along the deck will not have to raise a very high speed of its own before it is air-borne.

As each aeroplane rises it circles round and is followed by each of the rest of its formation in turn.

So smart are the carrier crews in ge.tting the machines off that generally oMo machine is hegriiwiing to move from tin , lift i-ili] (if tlic deck as its next ahead liar- ju?t cleared the bows of the shi{b Jn iact, I - flaet _

fighters taking ofT from the lower deck of a carrier through the hole between the flying deck above and the hangar deck.

An orlicer is in command of take-on*, and signals to each machine in turn whether it may start to follow the one* ahead.

While this is going on the two destroyers which always accompany each aircraft carrier stand by, a HttU astern of the ship, one on each side, no that if one of the machines taking off should fall into the sea or should have to alight on the water, th-j destroyer will pick it up in a few minutes.

Landing on is a slightly more complicated process. Across tin; aft part of the deck wires arc stretched which are called arrester wires. And each aeroplane has hooks near the tail which catch those wires as the tail wheel hits the deck.

The wires are so close to the deck that the wheels of the aeroplane rol! over them, but the hooks catch. By an ingenious device the wire is allowed to spring forward so that it brings the aeroplane gradually to rest. Otherwise there would be the danger of the machine rolling free along the deck and plunging over the bow. or over the side as did happen in the early days of these dock landings, although the arrester wire idea was used hy tb<late Glenn Curtiss for the first alighting on the dock of a ship which was ever made. That, was in 1910.

The whole teclmif|iic of taking off from carriers and alighting on them lias been so perfected that in thes:' days accidents are very rare, even in rough weather. Torpedo Attacks The technique of torpedo attack in these days has also been greatly improved. In the past the aeroplane had to drop its torpedo at a height of not more than about ten feet, otherwise the smack on the water was apt to upset the gyroscope control, and the torpedo might dive or try to climb out of the water or even turn round and try to torpedo its own ship. To-day they can drop torpedoes from a much greater height and at a much Creator speed and at a much greater distance from tho target. A single torpedo is carried —generally the IS-inch air torpedo, not the 24-inch naval "mouldie." But newer and bigger torpedo craft, too big for carrier*, can iim> the bigger type. l'\\2 trouble in the old days was that.

planes which flew very slowlv (a) to drop the torpedo slowly enough, and (b) to lie able to turn away sharply, although at low speed, after dropping it. Today, the faster machines can get away by doing their sharp turn at a much higher speed and without Hying so close to the ship which they are attacking as to lie within dangerous range.

Against a well-trained and wellarmed enemy a torpedo attack is an unpleasant job. The torpedo craft must come clown at a distance which is fairly well known to the ship's gunners, and not very high above the water, so the recognised technique of defence is to burst the shells from big guns on or in the water on the lin" of the torpedo attack: in fact, to sel up a combined shell and water barrago against the oncoming torpedo craft.

And the equally obvious counter to that is a smoke screen, laid by a fast aeroplane as close as possible t.o thattacked ship, so that the gunners aiv blinded, while the upper works of the ship are left visible to give the line of attack to the torpedo pilots. I saw practice with these smoke screens by the U.S. Navy in Chesapeake Hay somV 17 years ago, so I imagine that the technique has been highly developed. Seeing that carrier-borne aircraft, whether lumbers or fighters, can be so formidable, readers may well ask

whether we are likely some day in get as j;.>o(l as we <;ivc. The answer is that so long a> the British Navy holds command of the sea. anil so long as it keeps it- Fleet Air Arm equipment up-to-date in quality and Miperior to the enemy ill quantity, there is nothing about which to worry. U.S. Tendencies Incidentally, in the I'.S. Navy there is a tendency to build smaller carriers and m >re of them. The first U.S. carrier. the Ranger, which walaunched in l'l.'W. is a ship of 14.500 lon<. After her they built the York(own, of l'.i.'.mo ion's, which is in the same class as our ships and the German ships. And in l'.t.Ki they launched another ship, the Enterprise, of 1!>,!H)O tons. I hear that now they are thinking again in the rejrion of 12.000 tons. The obvious objection to the big ships was that if one were torpedoed or bombed out of action the loss was so heavy. I have been told by a high naval authority, however, that the Illustrious an.l her class are just about as nearly unsiukable ships as anybodv knows how to build. And. judging bv the rapidity witli which those ships are following one another.- H.M.A.C's will play a big part in winning the war.