AIRCRAFT AT SEA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 13 September 1937, Page 5

AIRCRAFT AT SEA

WORK ON THE CARRIER DIFFICULT TASK OF LANDING-ON PROBLEMS FOR THE ‘ NAVY In “Flight” Mr J. 11. C. Harper de* scribes the conditions air craft in a 1 carrier” operate and gives some idea of the special problems which confront the designers of such aeroplanes. The height of the ship-plane in the tail-down attitude is restricted by the head room available in the hangars in the ship. When ship-planes are being flown off or landed-on, the carrier steams ahead directly into the wind. If there be little natural wind, then the carrier will have to steam fast to take on board its aircraft. This has several operational objections. First, at such high shipspeeds the consumption of oil fuel will be considerably increased and the operational range of the carrier correspondingly reduced. How serious this is can be judged from the fact that increasing speed from twenty to twenty-five knots doubles the oil fuel consumption, and a further increase from twenty-five knots to thirty knots doubles it again. A third important consideration is that it often happens that when the carrier is required to operate her aeroplanes, the fleet is steaming down or across wind, and consequently the carrier has to steam away from the fleet; this may take her into the proximity of enemy ships, the shore, or shoals. This is always a potential source of worry to the Commander-in-Chief.

The aircraft to be flown are brought up on the lifts from the hangars below decks and are ranged up behind each other on the flight deck. Flying off is a comparatively simple process but of course there must be no tendency for the aircraft to swing, otherwise it may go over the sides or collide with the “island,” as the ship’s superstructure is called.

Landing-on is a far mor.e difficult process. The flight deck is none too long, but it is the narrow width which calls for the skill and concentration of the pilot. Entry into the arrester gear at too high a speed throws a great strain on both the aircraft and the deck cables. In one of the aircraft carriers of a certain foreign power an arrester wire broke during a particularly fast landing, and the flailing ends decapitated one of the deck party and cut off the legs of another. The actual process of landing-on is very different from alighting on an aerodrome, as the deck is moving forward all the time and in rough weather may be rolling and pitching considerably. The usual procedure is for the pilot to make his approach .so that when at a distance of 100 to 150 yards astern of the ship, he will be aligned on the centre line and at such a height that he will eventually pass about twenty feet above the after end of the flight deck. In bad weather the ship may pitch considerably, the stern often rising and falling through a height of 30 or 40 feet. In order to reduce the run and bring the aircraft quickly to rest, use is made of arrester gear, a number of stout wires stretched across the deck at intervals. A specially designed hook attached to a triangular frame is trailed beneath the fuselage and engages with one of the wires, which is then allowed to run out under the control of a braking apparatus beneath the deck.