Brodie system - who needs catapults?

[Arjen]

Via War Is Boring

In the 1940s, the U.S. Navy Launched Planes From Trapezes

The Brodie system was a high-wire act for aircraft

by STEVE WEINTZ

Today’s small drones launch off catapults and land in big nets. Large drones require runways, whether on land or at sea. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way, as a wacky—and successful—World War II technique proved.

During the Pacific War, a U.S. Army Air Forces captain figured out how to launch and recover a small airplane from a ship—without using a runway or a landing deck.

It’s still pretty weird. His system looked like a barnstorming circus stunt at sea. But his contraption not only worked—it functioned in combat.
[...]
During the trials, a nearby aircraft carrier radioed, “We see it but we don’t believe it.”
[...]

<edit> refreshed link to clip

 

[shedofdread]

Thank you for sharing that. MOST interesting.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Via the comments on this post over at the Dreamy Dodo blog:

 

[riggerrob]

Great video!

I can see adding winches to Brodie cables to accelerate and de-cellerate L-planes.

Also look at various parasite fighter and Skyhook projects.

The only deployed parasite fighters were the Curtiss Sparrowhawks that flew with the US Navy airships Akron and Macon during the 1930s.

Brits revived the Brodie concept during the 1980s when they grabbed a Harrier VTOL jet with the Skyhook system mounted on a land-based crane. Their goal was to re-fuel and re-arm Harriers from small frigates.

 

[AeroFranz]

Apparently the same idea was experimented with much earlier. From Flying magazine, April 1946:

Flying Magazine

books.google.com

This takes nothing from the Brodie device, which had the distinction of making a much bigger impact than the Bleriot of which i knew nothing until now. But it does show that the same ideas keep popping up a few decades apart.

 

[riggerrob]

Next ... launching airplanes with trebuchets!
Hah!
Hah!

Another alternative is swinging the arrester "wire" on a really long boom and cable. The "landing" airplane pulls a tight turn over the ship and inches its way towards an arrester "wire." Yes, the pilot will have to pull serious "Gs" in a tight turn, but the advantage is minutes to precisely align with the "wire."
Once the "landing" airplane catches the arrester "wire," the "wire" is winched in and lowers the airplane to the ship's flight deck.

 

[Archibald]

Indiana Jones: Come on, dad. Help me get us out of here. We have to get to Marcus (Brody) before the Nazis do.

Professor Henry Jones: But you said he had a two day head start. That he would blend in, disappear.

Indiana Jones: Are you kidding? I made all that up. You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum.

 

[tallguy]

Anybody know what the largest plane that used the Brodie system?