CARRIER CRUISE (Part Three)

One of the primary advantages of a carrier is the ability to launch all sorts of aircraft off the flight deck. This involves bringing the plane to the launch pad, connecting the nose steering gear to the catapult, running the engines to full afterburner with the brakes on, checking to make sure all systems are go and then launching the bird for takeoff. The aircraft goes from a dead stop, to 300 mph flying, within a few hundred feet. This whole procedure is scary enough but does not even compare with the aerial ballet that must be performed on landing.

A flying machine traveling at 300 mph on landing needs to come to a complete stop in less than 400 feet. Reverse thrust and brakes are not enough. A pilot must have tremendous skill and timing to bring his aircraft on glide path to a landing strip that is moving and frequently subject to cross winds. If the "driver" is too high or too low, too fast or too slow, the pilot must be ready to go around and try again. Critical to all this is the arrestor cable. It is about four inches in diameter (see adjacent picture, by clicking to enlarge) and attached to a huge machine below decks that allows the cable to stretch and give, as force is applied. There are four such cables on deck that stick up a few inches, to allow the plane's tail hook to catch on the cable and bring it to an abrupt stop.

So many things can go wrong with this procedure, but, surprisingly, it works rather well. We were shown a safety film, however, where an F-18 was landing, the tail hook caught the cable, stretched but then the cable suddenly snapped and broke. The cable whipped back with tremendous force. The slow motion camera recorded the result. An alert sailor saw the cable coming right for him and jumped in the air so that it missed him and yet another sailor, farther down the flight deck, was looking the other way. He was not so fortunate. The cable immediately took off his legs, just below the knee. The aircraft went over the bow but the pilot, following training procedures, used his ejection seat to parachute into the ocean and was rescued.

Arrestor cables are now routinely changed long before they reach metal fatigue failure. And yet, perhaps the most hazardous times occur while landing. It is a tribute to the men and women that man the flight decks and put their life on the line every day they work.