Posted on 11/27/2019 4:54:37 AM PST by WhoisAlanGreenspan?
The US entered World War II with 7 Aircraft Carriers and by the end of the war would have several times that. It's one thing to build ships, it's another thing to train the men that would eventually fly off those ships. So the US built some ships which would serve that purpose and that's where we come in.
In March of 1942, the Navy purchased the steamer and started to convert her into an aircraft carrier. She was designated as IX-64. IX is the designation used by the Navy for ships that aren't otherwise classified. She was named the Wolverine because she would operate mostly in Lake Michigan and Michigan was known as the Wolverine State. She was commissioned on August 12, 1942
She was fitted with a 550 foot long deck constructed with douglas fir and began her job as an advanced trainer in January of 1943. She would operate out of Naval Air Station Glenview (in Illinois) and served to train carrier pilots and landing signal operators. She and her sister (the Sable covered next) were not proper carriers by any stretch. Neither had a hangar deck or flight elevators. So if a plane crashed, training would end for the day. Also, because of wind over deck (the speed of the wind over the deck) minimums for some of our advanced planes were higher than some of the prevailing winds on Lake Michigan, training would be halted for days at a time. But they still got the job done.
(Excerpt) Read more at michiganexposures.blogspot.com ...
yeah, surprised me too
Ok, the aircraft did not have the power, catapults, or deck length to take off without the help of a head wind. In a dead calm a carrier making 22 knots has a the wind over the deck of 22 knots. If a wind is present the carrier can turn into the wind, say a 10 knot wind, and the wind over the deck would now be 32 knots. This makes take offs and landings much easier.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
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