Automatic Carrier Landing System

[yahya]

Anybody knows when precisely the Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) was introduced? Which aircraft were factory fitted with the system? A-7C? F-14A?

 

[EwenS]

Anybody knows when precisely the Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) was introduced? Which aircraft were factory fitted with the system? A-7C? F-14A?

This USNI article from July 1965 states 6 carriers already had the SPN-10 system with Enterprise in the process of being fitted with it and that fitting all existing aircraft would take 4 years. But it was already on at least some Phantoms.


"Earliest Fleet introduction of aircraft equipped for ACLS Mode I operations is planned for late 1966, coincident with completion of shipboard installations."

Mode I was the fully automatic mode.

 

[yahya]

Thank you for the instant reply.

If I'm not mistaken, the SPN-10 represented the state of the 1940s/1950s technology, and the system involving it dubbed the All Weather Carrier Landing System (AWCLS) was unfortunately prone to failures. That happened yet in the early 1960s.

So, the system was eventually upgraded to the SPN-41/SPN-42 ACLS. I do not, however, know the exact year of its introduction (and certification). Perhaps this happened in the late 1960s. I therefore wonder if the rig was used on a regular basis in SEA in that time.

Apparently, the ACLS consisted of the SPN-41 ILS radar and the SPN-42 landing control central to send Ku- and Ka-band, and UHF signals, and receive X-band replies from the approaching aircraft.

The number of avionics that had to be carried by a compatible aircraft was vast: the ASW-25 data link, the ARA-63 ILS receiver, he ASN-54 approach power compensator that controlled the throttle, and the APN-154 radar beacon. A lot of things that could suddenly fail when most needed.