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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0389.PDF
22 March 1957 391 from the island were switched on to illuminate the deck, Venomsand Gannets disappeared below on the side and rear lifts, and Little F called "Flying for the day is completed. Secure flightdeck." Switching off his microphone and putting it down, he turned from Flyco. "Now for some bacon and eggs. Let's shutup shop." Meanwhile, the Chief Yeoman was passing a signal from theCaptain to Apollo, now sheering off into the darkness, her plane- guard duty completed. "... must have been very boring foryou but it was good value for us . . ." Earlier, the duty signals officer had smiled on receiving the reply to another signal fromArk. This original signal had been addressed to Tidereach, the tanker from which Ark Royal was refuelled during that week,and had read: "I should like to use you as a target for air search and dummy attacks while on passage. Request you report at1800 daily your estimated position at 0800 next day." The reply from Tidereach, agreeable but somehow not quite atease, had been: "Certainly we should like to co-operate but please ask your aircraft not to make any mistakes."Ark's day was not ended, even now. Between the great, dark lift-wells, their walls embroidered with a hanging pattern ofcatapult strops, the bright-lit hangars were still busy. Through- out the day they had been busy, with a continuous contact withthe A.C.R.—the Air Department's information centre on aircraft availability. Air engineer and electrical officers, hangar controlofficers, workshop artificers, air mechanics, safety-equipment ratings, and innumerable others; planning, changing, maintain-ing and repairing to meet the day's flying programme. When the aircraft needed for tomorrow's programme had beenchecked—and worked on, if necessary—the hangars could become still. The Air Maintenance Control Room (the main centre formaintenance records), however, was one of the ship's many departments which were staffed 24 hours a day.The phrase "tomorrow's flying programme" had itself implied many hours' work, too. Within the broad framework of the AirDepartment's task for the week, Ops had begun to write this detailed daily programme (involving aircraft types and numbers,squadrons, exercises to be flown, and timing) at about three o'clock that afternoon. Checked by departmental heads con-cerned and by Commander (Air)—and signed by Ops and Little F—the programme was then ready to be discussed at the AirDepartment meeting and used as a basis for the more detailed programmes drafted by the individual squadrons. Many others, obviously, had geared a full day's effort to theoperating cycle of the ship. On the armaments side, however, there still remained a particularly heavy load at the beginning andat the end of the day. Rockets and bombs to be loaded in the bowels of the ship on to the special lifts, raised, and stored inthe ready-use compartments; cannon ammunition to be brought up and stored also. This week of intensive weapons flying meanta particularly heavy effort for the ammunition parties. All this effort, combining to effect the single-minded comple-tion of an aviation task, was superimposed on the normal day-to- day working of a large and complex ship. Teamwork, again, onthe grand scale—even if the agonized noises which came during the evening from band-room 2W8 did indicate a lack of harmonyin at least one part of the ship. It all added up to a typical day at During the week which followed, the carrier slipped well intoher planned routine. The operating cycle became smoother, with drill and repetition a dozen times a day. Certainly there wereunplanned incidents—the firing mechanism of the port catapult caused trouble, a delay in fuelling caused aircraft to be taken downunfuelled to the hangar so that an incoming sortie could land on, an underwing tank burst and caused some hectic squeegee-ing ofthe deck, and a Venom wing-tip caught the mirror reference-lights as the machine made a night landing on the left of the centre-line. These incidents only emphasized the high standards demanded of those who choose to associate with Naval aviation. The week had its high-spots, too, the most welcome of whichwas an informal visit to the ship by the Duke of Edinburgh. He cut a celebration cake to mark the 1,000th landing by an aircrafton board. By Saturday, the week's programme had been completed andthe ship lay at anchor off Gibraltar. Across the bay lay Algeciras, low and white, with hills rising behind the town. On the afterend of the flight deck, the mobile crane was assisting in the engine-change of Wyvern 386. Just in front of the island wasa worn-looking London taxi which, normally resident in the helicopters' hangar-level bay, had come up for some week-end air.Its joint owners were the ship's commanders—or sergeants, as the noble three-stripers were known. That evening, an Air Department meeting—of a kind—wouldprobably be held at La Venta, Gibraltar, where sundry members of the Admiral's staff, squadron aircrew from Ark and Albion(also at Gib.) and other Naval officers would, co-incidentally, be having themselves a big time, too. But now, in the afternoon,and here on the flight deck, it was quiet. On the side of the island, the Battle-honours board, clear in the sunlight, gave alink with History. "Armada, 1588" it began. * * * But that was the week ahead. We had just ended the first dayof that week, and we were pretty tired. But carrier flying is a tiring business. It is also the most fascinating and exactingbusiness in aviation. At 0700 the next morning, in accordance with Daily Orders,the aircraft ammunition supply teams of the first part of the Port Watch, together with Nos. 2 and 3 bomb-lift crews, musteredoutside X Gun-bay. Fifteen minutes later, "flying stations" was sounded off.Ark's day had begun again. DEVELOPMENT OF THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER (continued from page 382) aft; the designer therefore has a simple exchange rate betweenaircraft launching speed and catapult strength. A strong aircraft can be launched to a high launching speed, thus reducing the neces-sity for high-lift devices or enabling increased launching weight to be accepted; but this catapulting strength costs extra weightanyway, so the circle is vicious. All this assumes that the cata- pult maximum power will be sufficient, but this can be arrangedmore easily than lengthening the catapult. Deck Operations. Conditions on a carrier deck can be prettyrugged, but aircraft must be operated just the same. The time- honoured method of moving aircraft was by manpower, or undertheir own power during launching and landing operations; but this is fast becoming impractical with the large aircraft weightsnow appearing, and mechanical handling is being developed. The requirements are quite severe, as the instantaneous gradient onthe deck may well be 1 in 10 when the ship is rolling and particu- larly during turns. The space available is extremely crampedand necessitates a mechanical handler of extreme manoeuvr- ability. The handler must also have the ability to attach anddetach itself quickly and easily to and from the aircraft. An important item in deck operation is the amount of assortedequipment which has to be brought up for servicing and other purposes. Oxygen trolleys, arming trolleys, starting trolleys,chocks, intake guards, fuel hoses, air hoses, electric power leads —all these items, and more, may be required. Apart from thespace they occupy even when stowed they certainly do not simplify the general congestion on deck; in calm and easy con-ditions they may not be troublesome, bat with bad weather thrown in they can be a menace. Some of these items areinevitable, but starting trolleys at least should not be necessary, for some of the modern inbuilt starting systems produce therequired result with only a small addition to aircraft weight. Another major item of equipment is the mobile crane, which is essential for clearing the deck in the event of an accident; withaircraft weights going up fast this is becoming a chunky piece of machinery, and again it buys up valuable deck space. Little things like the type of paint on the deck can be extremelyimportant. Rubber tyres on a wet steel deck behave much like skis on snow; there is nothing more discouraging than seeingan aircraft, wheels locked, sliding towards the edge of the deck. The vast amount of fuel required by jet aircraft has produceda complete change in ship's aircraft fuel systems. Very fortu- nately a jet fuel (Avcat) has been developed which can be stowedin ships' tanks in the same way as the ship's boiler fuel. Petrol, on the other hand, has to be stowed in special "tankswithin tanks" for safety. Use of Avcat enormously increases the aviation fuel stowage capacity of the carrier and at the sametime has simplified the fuel system to a considerable extent. The new fuel systems have to be capable of high pumping rates tokeep down the turn-round time. Conclusion. The carrier has advanced immeasurably in thelast ten years and has now reached the stage where there are but comparatively minor problems in the operation of aircraft. Mereoperation is, of course, valueless unless the aircraft are capable of effective operations against the enemy; present-day effective-ness is limited to conventional explosives and inevitably the offensive power of a carrier is limited by the size and number ofaircraft it carries. The day is not far distant when nuclear weapons will confer on the aircraft carrier an enormous poten-tial while at the same time its mobility gives it a relative invulner- ability, as compared with fixed bases, to the ballistic-missile typeof weapon. In the United States it is already realized that the aircraftcarrier forces form a valuable part of the overall defence effort. We in this country must also realize the even greater importanceto us of the aircraft carrier.
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