"Frank May" wrote in message
...
ISTR reading in "Flying" magazine or something similar a long time ago
about a small Cessna or Piper making an emergency landing on a carrier
once. I also think I read where a Beech Twin Bonanza did likewise many
years ago. Didn't the "Tora, Tora, Tora" movie Jap. replicas not only
launch from the Yorktown, but land on it as well?


Probably the most remarkable case involved the RAF Hurricanes
of 46 squadron and Gladiators of 263 Squadron landed aboard
HMS Glorious off Norway in April 1940

The aircraft had no arrestor gear and none of the pilots had ever
landed on a carrier before and they were landing at night !

Nonetheless with sandbags strapped to the fuselage to slow them
down and a party of matelots tasked to grab the tailplane to stop
em going over the edge of the flight deck they all got down.

Tragically though the ship was sunk next day by Scharnhorst
& Gneisenau and most of the pilots were killed.

Keith