Rob van Riel wrote in
news
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 13:16:07 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 19:03:10 +0100, Rob van Riel
postulated :

As I recal that was a publicity stunt to demonstrate the raw power of
the catapults. A model T Ford that spent all of a mile in the air,
wasn't it?

When I was in a Navy airgroup (CVG-6 in the Fifties), it was standard
procedure to launch a concrete filled "wagon" off the cats after a
carrier left Portsmouth , VA yards to test the cats. The weight was
supposed to simulate an aircraft of the time. Difficult to plot the
trajectory from the flight deck but they went "way" out before arcing
down to the water.

Taking this way beyond reasonable speculation, has anyone else ever
wondered about the effects a missile like this might have on another
ship, as an emergency weapon :-)

Given that your projectile is fired from a level flight deck and heads
for the water immediately, this would be an inconsequential "weapon". The
cat end speed necessary for the projectile to go a mile is over 1200 kt.

I would think that a Model T would disintegrate
with the forces applied from a steam catapult.

Most likely. I figured they must have put the poor thing on a purpose
built sled or something. Then again, maybe it was just an item of
roughly the same mass as a T Ford, or maybe the whole thing is an
urban legend.

The same would hold for any other car strapped to the cat; I doubt it
would be recognisable as a car the instant the cat fired.

Nope. Both pix I have seen of cars getting fired show a clearly
recognizable car going off the bow.

Just found this one - a Falcon going off the "E":

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/824812/posts

Dave in San Diego