Wow!!

[Thumper]

First stealth fighter to take off and land on a carrier! I think we're getting close to fighting wars like video games! I wonder what a good, old-fashioned dog-fight would be like?


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WC8U5_4lo2c?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[BarryBobPosthole]

They're testing takes offs and landings of pretty near full size drones on carriers. When that's mastered its game on. And its cool too that drones do pretty much whatTom Clancy said they'd do in the The Bear and the Tiger (I think thats right). There will always jeed to be foot soldiers, but armour is getting ready to be a whole new ball game and mainly done with drones providing the data.
BKB

[Captain]

Good, now if we can just get a Bush back in office to throw us into some more wars we can test all this neat shit! ;)

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[BarryBobPosthole]

^^^^^shit disturber^^^^^

[Captain]

:D

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[Niner]

MAN!!! That gets my blood pumping. History in the making. I was there when they did the initial carrier testing for the FA-18....back in the early 1980's. Still got the 35mm pics around here someplace.

That's a whole 'nuther bird from the Air Force stealth jets. The airframe has to be MUCH stronger for carrier work.

Cap'n...at least it was on the USS Bush!!!

[airbud7]

Good, now if we can just get a Bush back in office to throw us into some more wars we can test all this neat shit! ;)


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[Captain]

A true American! We should be so lucky as to have another just like him.

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[BarryBobPosthole]

The Decider.

BKB

[hotshot]

Was that Maverick buzzing the tower?
Working on a flight deck just looks cool. I know it is dangerous and crazy hectic, dang! bad ass

[BarryBobPosthole]

Niner are those things taking off using some sort of catapult? They flat get it when they take off.

BKB

[Thumper]

Yeppers, they definitely use a catapult. That's a REALLY short runway! Plus the carrier is steaming at a good clip into the wind.

Look just past the 2-min. mark and you can see it hooked to the nose gear ... also as it takes off you can see the steam rising from the deck. (the catapults are steam operated)

[BarryBobPosthole]

Still didn't know if you'd noticed those were drones, not fighters.
BKB

[Thumper]

Yep, they call 'em UAV's ... (Unmanned Air Vehicles)

[BarryBobPosthole]

The scene on deck where the two 'pilots' are standing there with their hand controllers are funny.

BKB

[Thumper]

Like grown-up remote control model planes!

[Niner]

What Thump said. There are four cats on a modern carrier. When they want to, they can get a lot of birds in the air in a hurry!

The cats are steam powered. A good idea since a nuclear carrier has plenty of hot water available. At about 2:10 to 2:13 you can see them hooking the bird up to the cat. Then they give it "full throttle" and fling it off the boat (2:37 - 2:45 in the video). During air ops the boat is steaming at "a pretty good clip" into whatever the prevailing winds may be to get the most air over the wings of the plane as is possible.

When they used to launch F14's off, they were so heavy (and didn't have NEAR the amount of wing these guys do) they would dip down off of the end of the cat when they were launched...even with full afterburners on.

I'm glad my job was in Intermediate Maintenance, and not on the Flight Deck! That is the most dangerous job on a carrier, and probably in the Navy in general. I don't know about now, but "back in the day" it was not uncommon for a man who was not paying 110% attention to get blown down the deck when a jet turned. Back then, one of the main "attack aircraft" was the A-7. That bird had the nickname of "the man-eater". Check out the mouth on that beast....http://www.howitflies.com/files/photos/wikiexport/5/57/A-7E_Corsair_II_Flightdeck.JPEG

When the birds come back to land on the deck, a hook descends from the aft of the aircraft (3:47). The pilot then literally must hook one of three cables that are stretched across the deck (4:00)(4:02-4:10 has a good view of the landing). These cables are hydraulically dampened. The pilot really has to be paying attention, because IF he fails to snatch one of those cables he must fly off and try again. I once saw a plane's hook hit the deck in front of the first cable and bounce over it...it also bounced over the other two, and the pilot had to give it full throttle and fly back to try again.

I used to love to take a break from work and go up to "vultures row" and watch the air ops. That's where the folks are at in frame 3:14.

[Niner]

Sure enough. It's an big assed drone....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_X-47B

[BarryBobPosthole]

My unit, being a mobile tenant unit, at MacDill was garrisoned out at the end of the runway there. I've seen a lot of old F4s with hydraulic failures land and catch the barrier on that runway. It was made with B52 brakes on either side of the runway that'd catch them. You gotta figure those pilots had some flutters in their stomachs when they stopped that quickly.

BKB

[Sunshine]

:)

[Niner]

Was he able to say which ship it was?
I was on Carl Vinson CVN-70.
I was one of the original commissioning crew.

[Buckrub]

As long as technology creates neat weapons, we will always have a military commander to talk a President into invading someone.

[airbud7]

As long as technology creates neat weapons, we will always have a military commander to talk a President into invading someone.

Yep^

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