Strange guests on the decks of aircraft carriers
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Something like this can describe the 10 paranormal events of January 2012 of the year. In the Pacific Ocean was the strike aircraft carrier of the US Navy, the flight deck of which was chock filled with cars of various brands.
Are the brave American sailors so lacking in money allowances, that they have to drive custom-made cars from Japan? Or is it some kind of insidious plan to stun and confuse the enemy? Perhaps Hollywood is shooting another Transformers movie?
Alas, everything turned out to be very banal. The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) multipurpose nuclear carrier was transferred from its main base (San Diego Naval Base, California) to the Puget Sound shipyard (Bremerton, Washington) to undergo its first scheduled repair and core replacement of reactors. The procedure is lengthy, it can take more than a year. With "Reagan" removed all aviation equipment, 2480 air personnel went ashore in San Diego, and the crew of the aircraft carrier (3200 sailors) were forced to proceed with their ship to a new duty station.
Since there will be basically nothing for the sailors to do, the command of the Navy allowed them to take their favorite toys with them (all the more so families of sailors will come to Bremerton after some time). The Pentagon, of course, is rich, but flatly refused to pay third-party firms for driving cars across the country. Indeed, why do we need hundreds of trailers if such a Barge is available. The command of the Navy thought and waved his hand - "Drive!" The sailors laughed with mooring chains to the decks of the ship hundreds of their pickups and sedans. The result was so spectacular that the Pentagon voluntarily granted the press these discrediting honor. fleet, Photo. On the other hand, the command showed concern for the people, finding a quick solution to the domestic problem.
Of course, something similar on the ships of the Russian Navy can not be imagined in principle. Of course, it happened - evacuation of the population, saving artistic values from burning Sevastopol ... but in time of peace to use ships for no purpose - to accommodate the property of personnel in such huge quantities ... It is absolutely impossible. Regime facility, secrecy - relatives and friends are not allowed to go to Severomorsk closer than 30 kilometers, not to mention getting their own car on board. But, in fairness, it should be noted that the Russian military transport aircraft was regularly used to deliver military families to Tajikistan and back (witnessed personally, IL-76 flights from Sheremetyevo Airport, mid-90's). But it is already completely different. story.
Monsters on deck
At the beginning of the 60-ies, the US Navy faced another problem: to ensure the efficient operation of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aviation, a deck-mounted military transport aircraft with a large payload and a spacious cargo hold was required. At that time, C-1 “Trader” aircraft with deck payloads of 3800 kg and seats for nine passengers were used on deck of transport skadrils. “Traders” quickly and reliably delivered urgent cargo and equipment from the shore, provided aircraft carriers with spare parts for aircraft, carried out emergency missions to evacuate the wounded and sick sailors to the shore. But with the advent of heavy aircraft carriers of the Forrestal and Kitty Hawk types, as well as the even larger nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise, with 90 aircraft on board, the capabilities of the Traders were exhausted. Cumbersome and heavy turbojet aircraft engines did not fit into the small C-1 cargo bay as a whole, and had to be disassembled. And the 3800 kg payload seemed unacceptably small for the needs of a huge aircraft carrier.
At that moment, the command of the Navy came up with a fantastic idea of using a heavy four-engined C-130 “Hercules” aircraft as a vehicle. A machine of this type was well known in the fleet - as early as in 1957, two Hercules were tested in the Marine Corps aviation: the possibility of using them as air tankers for KMP aircraft was investigated. Obviously, the tests were successful, because in 1959, the Navy ordered 46 basic aircraft refueling aircraft under the designation KC-130. A fuel tank with a capacity of 13 620 l was placed in the cargo compartment, from which fuel was supplied to two refueling units of the hose-cone system suspended under the wing. The air tanker could simultaneously serve two fighters, the docking took place at speeds up to 570 km / h, this allowed to refuel any type of aircraft used by naval aviation. But this background, this action will be next.
October 8 1963, one of the KS-130 tankers, was transferred to the Marine Test Center at the Patuxent River Air Base. Sailors seriously planned to put a clumsy monster on the deck of the ship.
Landing simulations were carried out on the outline of an aircraft carrier drawn on the ground. During the preparatory flight tests, it was suddenly found out that the landing characteristics of the Hercules were in some respects superior to those of conventional deck aircraft. Moreover, the Hercules did not need to be equipped with a landing hook (a hook at the back of the fuselage, standard for all deck vehicles) - it was enough to turn on the reverse of the screws to stop the heavy aircraft at the edge of the steel strip. But there were some difficulties - the pilots of deck aircraft never piloted a heavy four-engined plane, it took them some time to gain confidence at the helm of the "Hercules".
On a windy October day, the KC-130 headed for the open sea, where, for 400 miles from Boston, it was expected by the aircraft carrier Forrestal. From the flight deck removed all the aircraft. The ship turned against the wind, and the "Hercules" began to decline. Immediately after touching the deck with the wheels of the main landing gear, the pilots gassed and went into the second round. For a few days, they made 29 such touches. Finally, 22 of October 1963 of the year, the pilots immediately before touching the deck with wheels turned on the reverse of the screws - and the first real landing on the deck took place!
Senseless experiments ended in a week. KC-130 made 21 landing on the ship and as many successful take-offs from its deck without the help of any springboards, catapults or launch powder accelerators (which is not surprising - the Hercules had excellent piloting qualities and high thrust-weight ratio). Gradually, the flight weight of the aircraft was brought to 54,4 tons.
For comparison: one of the heaviest deck-based aircraft - the F-14 two-seater Tomcat interceptor had a take-off weight of 33 tons. About the same weighed deck bomber A-3 "Skywatch" (31 ton), the legendary "Vigilant" had an even lower take-off weight - 28 tons. The take-off weight of the modern Super Hornet deck fighter-bomber F / A-18 usually does not exceed 22 tons (according to calculations, it can reach 30).
As sane experts predicted, regular operation of such a bulky plane from the deck of the ship was impossible. The Hercules had few chances to take to the air in windless weather, and preparations for receiving the C-130 on deck limited the aircraft carrier’s combat capability — it was necessary to remove all the aircraft’s equipment in the hangar, and the landed transportist blocked the approach to the catapults and prevented the landing operations.
As a result, the US Navy command accepted a compromise option - to deliver bulky cargo from onshore bases and integrated supply ships to an aircraft carrier rational use of a helicopter - unlike the “Hercules”, heavy SH-3 “Sea King” or CH-53 “Sea Steelen” placed in the underdeck hangar and can carry any non-standard and bulky cargo on the external sling. For fast delivery of urgent cargo to the aircraft carrier, a new C-2 “Greyhound” vehicle was created - a modification of the E-2 “Hokai” radar detection aircraft, with the equipment removed and the radar antenna. Greyhound's payload is 4,5 tons of cargo or 28 passengers. Flight range - 2400 kilometers. When parked, the wing planes turn back and fold along the fuselage, making the Greyhound a very compact deck-mounted aircraft.
Operation Sandy
The Pacific theater of military operations has shown that the main striking power of the US armed forces is the navy. Sailors were proud of their greatness until the New Sun flashed over Hiroshima. Nuclear weapon The prestige of the US Navy has been shaken - the shells of 406-mm guns of battleships and hundreds of deck torpedo bombers were as weak as worms in front of the power of Strategic Aviation. None of the deck aircraft in the 40-ies could not be compared with the land-based B-29 Super Strength bomber, moreover, none of the deck aircraft of the US Navy could even lift a nuclear bomb! What a disgrace…
In an effort to somehow improve the situation, the American admirals decided to equip aircraft carriers with completely inadequate weapons - the V-2 ballistic missiles captured in the Third Reich. And it was a serious trump card: in the 40 of the US Navy had a complete monopoly in the oceans - the carrier group would not have been difficult to break through to the coast of any state (according to statistics, 90% of the world's population live no more than 500 km from the coastline of seas and oceans ), where the V-2 will be launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier, which cannot be intercepted at all. Serious combat system. Of course, in practice, a lot of problems appeared: the sea motion complicated the refueling of the rocket with fuel, there were great difficulties with the stabilization of the V-2 on the launch pad.
6 September 1947 of the “Bermuda Triangle” from the board of the midway carrier in full swing “Midway” launched the V-2. The rocket took off at an acute angle to the horizon, nearly demolished the superstructure, flew 9 kilometers and safely fell apart into three parts, which, tumbling, fell into the sea.
The idea of turning aircraft carriers into "heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers" (the reader probably understood the hint) was pursued by the US Navy before the start of the 60-s. 10 modernized aircraft carriers of the Essex type (of the Oriskani type) were seriously armed with Regulus 1 cruise missiles with special combat units. For launch, steam catapults were used - the rocket was placed on a three-wheeled cart, accelerated as an ordinary plane and ... whistled tossed from the deck towards the enemy. The military was particularly pleased by the fact that the rocket could receive accurate target designation from the DRLO aircraft of the deck wing on the entire flight trajectory. But, with the advent of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, all these perversions have come to nothing - for the last 50 years, the Americans have denied the presence of nuclear weapons on the decks of their aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers themselves are regularly used in local wars and to control maritime communications. In the long absence of the Third World War, aircraft carriers proved to be an exceptionally effective means in numerous Cold War conflicts: unlike underwater strategic missile carriers, the results of their work are intended for those living now and not for a handful of three-legged mutants who survived a global nuclear war.
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