More issues plague Russian Aircraft Carrier

a reply to: LordOfDestruction

The Advanced Arresting Gear that's being tested now uses an induction motor to slow the aircraft down. It's much easier on the system. The current system is the Mark 7 Mod 3 arresting gear system.

a reply to: JIMC5499 Wow, that must have been something! I assume after a while its just white noise, probably hard to fall asleep without it, haha.

a reply to: Arnie123

The Ford class will use an electric system, instead of a hydraulic system.

www.navair.navy.mil...

a reply to: Zaphod58 I assume when this cable snaps there are guards to prevent damage and injury down below? Does it snap at the cross deck pendant? From what I can see in the videos it snaps on one end, like around the retractable sheave. Am I wrong?

a reply to: LordOfDestruction

A lot of the time it's the cross deck pendant, but I've seen a few that the actual cable itself snapped in half. It usually doesn't affect the below deck systems.

a reply to: Zaphod58 I would hope not, if it affected the system below deck the damage would probably be in the millions. have you actually been on deck when these things snapped?

a reply to: Zaphod58 What do you think of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, have you seen that in action yet?

a reply to: LordOfDestruction

No, I've never had the fortune to sail on a carrier. Almost did once, but it fell through at the last minute.
As for EMALS, I like what I've heard about it. It will be more effective and more efficient, once they work the bugs out.

a reply to: Zaphod58 That sucks, must be a crazy rush taking off and landing on one. I have been reading about the EMALS a bit since your provided the link to it, sounds a lot better than the steam powered catapult. I cant believe they use steam, seems so ancient.

a reply to: LordOfDestruction

Steam works, is well known, and is pretty reliable. Not to mention that almost all of our Nimitz class hulls are pretty old. There are three subclasses, Nimitz, Roosevelt, and Reagan. The three Nimitz hulls (Nimitz, Eisenhower, Vinson) were laid down between 1968 and 1975. The five Roosevelt hulls (Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, Stennis, and Truman) were laid down between 1981 and 1993, with the two Reagan hulls (Reagan and Bush) laid down in 1998 and 2003. EMALS takes advantage of technologies that weren't available for most of those hulls. It would be expensive to go back and, retrofit it onto them but there has been talk of doing that with at least the Roosevelt and Reagan hulls.

a reply to: Zaphod58 I guess the Nimitz hulls will be out of commission soon anyways, its probably not the best idea to retrofit them now as it would be a waste of money. I honestly had no idea that these were steam powered until I read into it. Its really interesting stuff.

a reply to: LordOfDestruction

Nimitz is expected to retire sometime around 2025.

a reply to: LordOfDestruction

I have. We were on work ups (March 1986) when a cable snapped. The aircraft was able to keep flying and nobody was hurt. The cable cut through the tail of one of our helicopters and damaged an A-6. I was over in the catwalk on the angle deck, well out of the way and had a perfect view.

Took about 20 minutes to replace the cable.

a reply to: Zaphod58 Some of them will be over 50 years old, that's quite a lifetime. Impressive, the amount of maintenance that goes into that.

a reply to: JIMC5499 Glad you were out of harms way man. That thing can do lots of damage, since we started talking about it today I have been watching lots of videos and reading up on it. Glad the new system is coming in, seems a lot safer.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Oh man that must of been scary.

a reply to: LordOfDestruction

They were designed for 50 years, although they could theoretically go a lot longer with another refueling.

Fishing Reef!

Fishing Reef!

a reply to: Xeven

If you want three eyed talking fish.