[BITList] The beginnings of Naval carrier aviation
franka
franka at iinet.net.au
Thu Mar 17 14:15:23 GMT 2011
Makes a change to the end of Naval Aviation
frank
*100 Years Ago, January, in San Francisco, when Eugene Ely invented
naval aviation.
cid:1.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.comOne hundred years is a
very long time. Yet in the hierarchy of modern marvels, the ability
to recover and launch aircraft from the deck of a moving ship stands
out as one of our signature accomplishments. Which just goes to show
you: Some tricks never grow old.
cid:2.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
Naval aviation was invented one hundred years ago, on January 18,
1911, when a 24 year-old barnstormer pilot named Eugene B. Ely
completed the world's first successful landing on a ship. It
happened in San Francisco Bay, aboard the cruiser USS Pennsylvania,
which had a temporary 133-foot wooden landing strip built above her
afterdeck and gun turret as part of the experiment.
cid:3.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
cid:4.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
Ely accomplished his feat just eight years after the Wright Brothers
made their first flight at Kitty Hawk. His aircraft was rudimentary:
a Curtiss Model D "Pusher" biplane, equipped with a 60 hp V-8 engine
that gave the aircraft a 50 mph airspeed. To get a sense of how
simple it was, behold a contemporary replica of Ely's 1911 Curtiss
Pusher that was built to celebrate this 100th anniversary:
cid:5.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
But back then, innovation was afoot. Ely's Curtis Pusher had been
fitted with a clever new invention called a tailhook. The idea was
to quickly halt the aircraft after landing by using the tailhook to
catch one or two of 22 rope lines -- each propped up a foot above
the deck and weighted by 50-pound sandbags tied to each end --
strung three feet apart along the Pennsylvania's temporary flight deck.
Mark J. Denger of the California Center for Military History has
written a tidy biography of Eugene Ely which narrates the historic
day: /On the morning of January 18, 1911, Eugene Ely, in a Curtiss
pusher biplane specially equipped with arresting hooks on its axle,
took off from Selfridge Field (Tanforan Racetrack, in San Bruno,
Calif.) and headed for the San Francisco Bay. After about 10 minutes
flying North toward Goat Island (now Yerba Buena), Eugene spotted
his target through the gray haze ˆ the PENNSYLVANIA.
/cid:6.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
Ely's plane was first sighted one-half mile from the PENNSYLVANIA's
bridge at an altitude of 1,500 feet, cruising at a speed of
approximately 60 mph. Now ten miles out from Tanforan, he circled
the several vessels of the Pacific Fleet at anchor in San Francisco
Bay. The aeroplane dipped to 400 feet as it passed directly over the
MARYLAND and, still dropping, flew over the WEST VIRGINIA's bow at
an height of only 100 feet. With a crosswind of almost 15 knots, he
flew past the cruiser and then banked some 500 yards from the
PENNSYLVANIA's starboard quarter to set up his landing approach.
Ely now headed straight for the ship, cutting his engine when he
was only 75 feet from the fantail, and allowed the wind to glide the
aircraft onto the landing deck. At a speed of 40 mph Ely landed on
the centerline of the PENNSYLVANIA's deck at 11:01 a.m.
cid:7.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
The forward momentum of his plane was quickly retarded by the ropes
stretched between the large movable bags of sand that had been
placed along the entire length of the runway. As the plane landed,
the hooks on the undercarriage caught the ropes exactly as planned,
which brought the plane to a complete stop.
Once on board the PENNSYLVANIA, sheer pandemonium brook loose as Ely
was greeted with a bombardment of cheers, boat horns and whistles,
both aboard the PENNSYLVANIA and from the surrounding vessels.
cid:8.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
Ely was immediately greeted by his wife, Mabel, who greeted him with
an enthusiastic "I knew you could do it," and then by Captain Pond,
Commanding Officer of the PENNSYLVANIA. Then it was time for
interviews and a few photographs for the reporters.
Everything had gone exactly as planned. Pond called it "the most
important landing of a bird since the dove flew back to Noah's ark."
Pond would later report, "Nothing damaged, and not a bolt or brace
startled, and Ely the coolest man on board." (NOTE: Safety first!
Check out Ely's inner-tube life preserver!)
cid:9.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
After completing several interviews, Ely was escorted to the
Captain's cabin where he and his wife were the honored guests at an
officers lunch. While they dined, the landing platform was cleared
and the plane turned around in preparation for takeoff. Then the
Elys, Pond and the others posed for photographs. 57 minutes later,
he made a perfect take-off from the platform, returning to Selfridge
Field at the Tanforan racetrack where another tremendous ovation
awaited him.
cid:10.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
Both the landing and takeoff were witnessed by several distinguished
members of both U.S. Army and Navy, as well as state military
officials. Ely had successfully demonstrated the possibility of the
aircraft carrier.
cid:11.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
Indeed. The US Navy's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, was
commissioned in 1922, eleven years later. But Ely didn't live to
witness the milestone; he died just a few months after his historic
flight, on October 11, 1911, when he was thrown from his aircraft
during a crash at an air show. But 100 years ago, he merged the
power of naval warships and aviation in ways that remain
cutting-edge, even today.
*cid:12.3156178418 at web121420.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
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