Warbird Information Exchange

I have never seen this before Razorbacks being throuwn off a carrier WWII footage It is about 1/4th way into the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuSYH0Cl6Sw

enjoy

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

In the Pacific, they were used to get the P-47's to the combat area quicker. I believe it happened more than once. P-40's were also launched off the Ranger during operation Torch in the Mediterranian.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Pretty kool!! Set to the music from the Band of Brothers makes it that much better.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Many P-40 launches in the SWP in the 78th FS p-40Ks and the 44th FS p-40Fs also P-39s of the 21st FG.

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Don't touch my junk!!

I remember seeing special scissors used on the MLG which had the cat hook forged into it for this purpose.
Rich

I did not know this. I knew a C-130 is capable of landing and taking off an aircraft carrier, and that the B-25 can take off from an aircraft carrier, but had never seen a fighter like those described above, being shot off a carrier. Well, ya just never know.

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

A B-25 DID land on a carrier too!
It was a Marine Corps PBJ and they were testing the feasiblity of it for carriers.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

U-2 took off and landed on a carrier too.

USS Shangri-La on 11-15-1944
PBJ-1, BuNo 35277 s/n 43-4700 flown by LCDR Syd Bottomly USN XO VB-3 at Midway on June 4,1942 was credited with hitting a Japanese carrier and awarded the Navy Cross.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Well, hardly.

It was done a few times, as a test, and it was sufficiently hairy that the guy who did it was given a DFC and nobody ever considered doing it operationally, even in an emergency. To say that you can get away with a crazy stunt doesn't place it within the operational capability of the aircraft.

August

It was done more than a few times and it wasn't a crazy stunt. The pilot had only flown one propeller driven aircraft before the 130, an SNJ, and he was a jet test pilot. He got pretty comfortable with the TOAL's and proved the viability of a supply op with the 130 at all weights. The latest Flight Journal has a great article by the man himself. I don't have it in front of me but I think he made 29 landings each empty, mid weight and gross. Pretty impressive stuff showing what a versatile a/c the 130 is.

Steve G

Those Jugs were sent off of the USS Manila Bay June 24 1944. They were 7th AF 318FG 73rdFS heading for Saipan. Four were launched the day before to try to catch two "Vals" that caught the carrier refueling from a tanker. (The Vals bombs missed.)There is a youtube video of just the P47s, I would link here if I knew how. Type USS Manila Bay in the youtube search box. Hugh

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My father was a a/c armorer 7th aaf 318FG 73FS

um...no?

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

According to Ben Rich they did operate U-2s off carriers.

Page 187 of Ben Rich's book

"In late 1963, we began launching U-2s from U.S. aircraft carriers, having developed a workable tailhook. In May 1964 , the U-2 took off from the USS Ranger to monitor French nuclear tests in an atoll in French Polynesia, but only after one of our test pilots, Bob Schumacher, crashed while landing on deck."


"The flights were secret, and the carrier crew had to go below deck when the bird took off and landed."

I have no problem believing the U2 could take off from a carrier, even without the catapault. We used to watch them take off outside the Radar shack at Patrick, it seemed like they could be airborne in 100ft, But to land one? The sea would have to be really flat. I don't think the gear is set up for that sort of stress, but I could be wrong.

B

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documenting restored B-17s and those undergoing restoration to flight: