P47s from Carrier (PTO 1945)

[Red Tail 444]

Originally posted by Brooke
The official reason that the P-47 was never used as a carrier plane is that it was found that single carriers were not heavy enough to stop a landing P-47.  Tests were performed with two fleet carriers chained together, which provided sufficient stopping weight for the P-47, but this arrangement proved unweildy in practice.

Sorry, I'm a little slow today, it might be the flu, or lack of sleep, or lack of blood to the brain since I can't really breathe right now....can you explain this to me so that my boys (11, 13) can understand it?

Stopping weight on carriers? this is completely new to me...thanks!

[Brooke]

Originally posted by Red Tail 444
Sorry, I'm a little slow today, it might be the flu, or lack of sleep, or lack of blood to the brain since I can't really breathe right now....can you explain this to me so that my boys (11, 13) can understand it?

Stopping weight on carriers? this is completely new to me...thanks!

It was a lame attempt at a joke on my part, implying that even the full weight of a carrier would not be enough to stop a big P-47 when it tried to land on one.  I know, I know -- keep my day job.

[Krusty]

(*pity rimshot*)

[Red Tail 444]

Originally posted by Brooke
It was a lame attempt at a joke on my part, implying that even the full weight of a carrier would not be enough to stop a big P-47 when it tried to land on one.  I know, I know -- keep my day job.

Arrg....hook, line, and sinker...never even felt the hook!:D

I just bought some pseudo enephenedrin or something, had to give them damn nearly 3 forms of ID and retinal eye scans...sheesh

[Treize69]

Wildcats preparing to be catapulted off the USS Long Island.




FM-2s being catapulted, notices the catapult wires falling away after they clear the deck.



Hellcat preparing to be "shot" off the deck.

Remember also thet the Cat chackles for the F4U-1 were the basis for the field-produced bomb shackles designed and tested by VF-17 before Vought ever made factory bomb racks for it.

All naval aircraft since the '20s have been designed with catapult gear, but it wasn't until the Jet-age that they were mandatory to get the plane off the deck, they were used mainly for low-wind, high weight or short-deck (like Jeep-Carrier) takeoffs. Most prop planes accelerated well enough to be able to fly off the deck under normal conditions without needing them, it was the low thrust-to-weight early jets (and the heavy payloads on later ones) that made their use mandatory after WWII.

[Brooke]

Originally posted by Krusty
(*pity rimshot*)

Maybe instead it should be "wa wa waaaaaaaa" followed by canned laugh track.

[Karnak]

Immediately post war some Spitfire Mk XIVs were delivered to someplace in southeast asia by being launched from a carrier.  I don't recall were exactly and am too lazy to look it up right now, but I bet Dan knows off of hand.

[Angus]

I did find a XIV squadron in the book "Aces High" by Shores, that operated in the Pacific theater.  Wonder if it was the same squadron, - anyway, that was a long time ago during an argument with none other than Izzy and I´m too tired to look it up now.
The Spits launched from carriers for Malta BTW, were full loaded with Slipper tank and went off without a catapult. Those decks were somewhat shorter than on the U.S. carriers as well, AFAIK.
They did however use half-flaps for the takeoff. Since the Spit only has the up and down pos, it was done by fixing them with a piece of wood - once airborne the pilot would then drop flaps, the piece would fall off, and then put flaps up again. Simple.

[hellcatz]

Originally posted by Guppy35
They were 318th Fighter Group P47s launched from three different escort carriers to their new base on Saipan.

P40s of the 33rd and 57th FGs had been launched off carriers during Operation Torch in North Africa to get to their bases on land.

Obviously the Spitfire Vb and Vcs launched off HMS Eagle and USS Wasp for Malta are probably the most well known.

A spitfire from the USS Wasp losts its belly tank and made a sucessful landing and in 1940 Hawker hurricanes made a succesful landing on a british carrier forget name

[frank3]

The Tunderbolt taking off at 1:25 seems to have some kind of vapor trail behind him, could it be a rato?

[38ruk]

Originally posted by frank3
The Tunderbolt taking off at 1:25 seems to have some kind of vapor trail behind him, could it be a rato?

Thats the exhaust from the turbo-supercharger .

[frank3]

Ah yes, that explains alot

[TOMCAT21]

catapults used in ww2 were of the compressed air type. i know on the yorktown class there were 2 forward(i believe)..