Wildcat on the Ronald Reagan

Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and lets assume
the carrier is at sea and moving.

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?

-Much Thanks
-CMTalleyrand

"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
...
Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and lets
assume
the carrier is at sea and moving.

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?

... cannot think of a reason why not for both landing & launch; compared
to the WWII carriers a Nimitz class flightdeck would be huge!!

"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
...
Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and lets
assume
the carrier is at sea and moving.

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?


Yes, in fact thats what was done for the 1970's film
of the Battle of Midway IRC

No surprise given that a modern carrier has a much longer
flight deck than anything available in WW2

Keith

In article ,
Charles Talleyrand wrote:
Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and lets assume
the carrier is at sea and moving.

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?

Given the much lower take off and landing speeds of WW2 aircraft, I'd not
think there'd be a problem. At the extreme of low take off and landing
speeds, ISTR the fleet Air Arm museum's Swordfish landing on and taking
off from Illustrious a year or so ago as part of the commemoration of the
60th anniversary of the Taranto raid - which of course would not present
any problem to a Stringbag as Illustrious, while smaller than US carriers,
is a lot bigger than many of the ships Swordfish operated from.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock
and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas)

"Charles Talleyrand" wrote:

Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and lets assume
the carrier is at sea and moving.

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?

As others have pointed out, certainly. If a C-130 can do it, albeit
gingerly, an F4F certainly could.

_Safely_ landing would be the question. The pilot would have to be
conversant with the present optical systems, and some LSOs would have
to be trained for the F4F's [or other WWII aircraft you're
postulating] characteristics and landing profiles. My only question
would be can modern arresting gear be set to handle the, generally,
much lower weights of WWII carrier aircraft compared to those
operating today? [e.g., F4F ~7,500 lbs, A4M ~25,000 lbs]

OJ III

"Ogden Johnson III" wrote in message
...
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote:

Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and
lets assume
the carrier is at sea and moving.

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?

As others have pointed out, certainly. If a C-130 can do it, albeit
gingerly, an F4F certainly could.

_Safely_ landing would be the question. The pilot would have to be
conversant with the present optical systems, and some LSOs would have
to be trained for the F4F's [or other WWII aircraft you're
postulating] characteristics and landing profiles. My only question
would be can modern arresting gear be set to handle the, generally,
much lower weights of WWII carrier aircraft compared to those
operating today? [e.g., F4F ~7,500 lbs, A4M ~25,000 lbs]

OJ III

I don't think you would need arresting gear. Getting forty knots + of wind
across the deck would be no problem. You might have a little truouble
holding the F4F onto the deck. Between the high drag and low speed of the
F4F its brakes shouldn't have any problem stopping.

Speaking of the high drag,

If the F4F is "dirty", gear, flaps, etc.down, with 20 knots headwind and the
CVN making 40 knots, can the F4F catch it? What was the landing speed on an
F4F. What about the take-off speed. Can the F4F fly off the bow, or will it
be like a chopper, and have to go off to the side. (There is a reason that
most of the time a chopper lands and takes off from the stern of a ship). I
can see it now, the F4F takes off, climbs to 250 feet, the CVN sails out
from under it, the CVN slows down, and the F4F catches up and lands. I can
see it now, ROTFLMAO.

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 23:58:10 -0400, "Charles Talleyrand"
wrote:

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?

Umm...if it can land and take off from a smaller, WWII-era carrier, why
couldn't it land and take off from a *larger* modern carrier?

--
Andrew Toppan --- --- "I speak only for myself"
"Haze Gray & Underway" - Naval History, DANFS, World Navies Today,
Photo Features, Military FAQs, and more - http://www.hazegray.org/

Charles- Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and lets
assume
the carrier is at sea and moving. BRBR

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?
BRBR

Pull the rods and get about 35 knots and let the A/C use the whole deck, yes to
both is what I think.
P. C. Chisholm
CDR, USN(ret.)
Old Phart Phormer Phantom, Turkey, Viper, Scooter and Combat Buckeye Phlyer

OJ- My only question
would be can modern arresting gear be set to handle the, generally,
much lower weights of WWII carrier aircraft compared to those
operating today? [e.g., F4F ~7,500 lbs, A4M ~25,000 lbs] BRBR

I would guess they would pull the wires and let the A/C just land.. CV with 35
knots on, plus any natural wind, F4F would be closing at about what, 50 knots
or so-easy to stop.
P. C. Chisholm
CDR, USN(ret.)
Old Phart Phormer Phantom, Turkey, Viper, Scooter and Combat Buckeye Phlyer

What would the landing weight (no ordnance) of an A-1 Skyraider be?
The ones they used on supercarriers in Tonkin Gulf. I'm assuming the
situation would be comparable.
Regards,

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 23:58:10 -0400, "Charles Talleyrand"
wrote:

Suppose someone tried to land an F4F Wildcat on a modern American
aircraft carrier. We'll give the carrier a few hours to prepare, and lets assume
the carrier is at sea and moving.

Can a WWII fighter land on a modern carrier? Can it get back in the air?

-Much Thanks
-CMTalleyrand