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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2366.PDF
30 November 1951 667 respect, the man who serves in Eagle, be he ordinary sea- man, artificer, or an officer, is provided with living condi- tions setting an entirely new standard for ships of war. As we had clambered up and down and round about from one part of the ship to another, we had caught glimpses of the world outside. The wind was building up to whole- gale force and sweeping the clouds before it so that the white horses galloping over the Firth sparkled and glittered in the sun. We were down in the wardroom, recuperating from our labours with a reinforced tonic preparatory to having lunch, when it was announced over the ship's broad- cast system that full helm high-speed turns were about to be made. Apart from a scarcely noticeable low-frequency vibra- tion, Eagle was quite steady. If she was, in fact, pitching and rolling/ it was through such small angles that, in the wardroom at least, it was unnoticeable. However, we thought such a manoeuvre would be well worth watching, so we went up to the quarter deck. We shall never forget it—it was magnifieent. The ship was ploughing through the water at 28 or 30 knots, and when 36,800 tons of sea water gets shouldered aside at something over 30 m.p.h., even if the intrusive body has the most exquisitely fine lines, the resulting commotion (espec- ially when seen from as low a height as 25ft) is a sight not quickly to be forgotten. The gale itself was tearing spume from the glittering waves and this, added to the ship's speed through the water, made the atmosphere on each quarter and astern an opalescent mist shot through with the pulsating lambence of great rainbow arcs. Then, as full helm to port was applied, the ship heeled outwards, and started to sweep round in what the curving wake made evident was an aston- ishingly small turning circle. The boiling rage of water close up under the stern made a hissing roar so loud that one had to shout into one's neighbour's ear to make oneself heard. Somewhat awed by the manifestation of such elemental power at such close quarters, we went below to lunch. £ photograph Captain Guy Willoughby, R.N., captain of H.M.S. "Eog7eT"- uiid f mander P. J. Hill-Norton, R.N., the executive officer of the ship. Throughout our meal Eagle continued to make tight high- speed turns, first to port and then to starboard, but although fiddles were fitted to the tables, they were not needed; cer- tainly, the ship heeled 10, perhaps 12, degrees, but that was all. She was almost incredibly steady for the sea and wind and speed conditions existing. After lunch, we were able to turn our attention to the operational side of the ship. In order to go up to the island, we travelled up to the flight deck on the after lift. Then came the job of walking, or rather staggering and lurching forward against the 6o-knot wind over the deck. Having at last won the sanctuary of the island, we went into the air- craft-control room, from which centre the whole organiza- tion of aircraft movement in the hangars and on deck is governed. Then we went up to the compass-platform which, to our untutored eye, looked much the same as that of other carriers we have visited. There were, however, comparatively few voice pipes because virtually all inter- communication between departments of the ship is con- ducted by means of radio and telephone. Thus, isolation integrity between compartments from fire, gas and atomic radiation is preserved. The telephone system aboard the ship is entirely automatic: one picks up the receiver and dials the appropriate number, just as one does ashore. One of the entirely new operational features of the ship is a combined double-deck operations room and aircraft- direction room. A most comprehensive array of plotting tables and wall plotting-boards, together with P.P.Is. of various kinds, is arranged on the "ground floor," and above this is a gallery, the well of which is enclosed by Perspex screens. Thus, observers in the gallery can see (and hear) everything that goes on below, whilst not encroaching. Another new feature of this arrangement is the provision of viewing pedestals in the gallery, whereby, through an optical system, a magnified plan view of individual plotting tables underneath is given. Not until the ship was back at anchor did we have comfort- able opportunity to have much of a look at the flight deck. There is nothing seemingly new about the arrester-wire arrangements, except in terms of numbers, for there are, in fact, 16 wires. In the case of the crash barriers, however, there is a departure from standard practice in that, as well as having more barriers (six), they vary in type; there is one barrier for jet aircraft, there are three for single-engined air- screw-driven types, and a further two for twin-engined air- craft. At the other end of the scale—and the flight deck— there are two catapults, each with an entirely new system of motorized centring. That is to say, instead of an aircraft having to be manhandled into its precise position on the cata- pult, it is merely taxied forward to an approximately right position, whereupon the centralizing gear takes over and quickly and accurately. So far as we "Flight" photograph • sjhe view of the fjigbt^Kck from Flying Control is unobstructed. Sixteen orreSier WlfeS'ond six barriers of three individual types are fitted.
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