Posted on 12/20/2010 8:12:23 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The Navy made history Saturday when it launched the first aircraft from the Naval Air Systems Command, Lakehurst, N.J., test site using the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, technology.
The Navy has been using steam for more than 50 years to launch aircraft from carriers. Saturday, the Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) program launched an F/A-18E Super Hornet using the EMALS technology that will replace steam catapults on future aircraft carriers.
“This is a tremendous achievement not just for the ALRE team, but for the entire Navy,” said Capt. James Donnelly, ALRE program manager. “Saturday’s EMALS launch demonstrates an evolution in carrier flight deck operations using advanced computer control, system monitoring and automation for tomorrow’s carrier air wings.”
EMALS is a complete carrier-based launch system designed for Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and future Ford-class carriers.
(Excerpt) Read more at navair.navy.mil ...
Boy did I read that headline wrong, I thought it said E-MAILS. I thought we could now launch a jet just by hitting “send.”
Oh, the humanity!
This is cool. Sounds like an electric rail propulsion.
Worth a ping...
This will allow the Navy to reduce the number of crew on the carrier assigned to keep the steam cats running. Plus it will be able to modulate launch weights from 10k to 100k pounds. So it can launch the big aircraft and the drones as well. Same technology as the rail gun.
In a former life, in 1961 at Grantham School of Electronics in Washington, DC, while studying solenoids, etc., I asked the instructor if electromagnetics could be used to launch artillery rounds or other things. Answer: Oh no! Nothing that powerful could ever be built.” Dang! I was 50 years ahead of my time!
Are the new British and French carriers (well, I guess I should just leave it at French since the UK seems to be so cash strapped their carriers may not even survive as ‘helicopter carriers’) going to use EMALS or the old steam technology? Might you know?
I still wonder how they shield the EMI from this thing.
It will obviously be a great comfort to the aviators themselves, who often get less steam on the cat stroke than they would like to have.
From what an aged birdman used to tell me, he came to hate the guy with the small chalkboard who ran up to the plane right before launch and waved a +9 at him — meaning he could expect to be nine knots above stall speed at the end of the stroke.
Not a lot of leeway.
I thought in the agreement between France and Great Britain they were going to use steam because on the French carriers(ie:Charles DeGaulle)use steam.
“I was 50 years ahead of my time!”
No you weren’t, you didn’t design and build it them!
In the 50s I had a friend of mine grinding heads and balancing engines for me that had one year of engineering at PCC and was smart enough to make a simple fix on the test bed for the Ranger Project at JPL and wound up in charge of all 9 Rangers.
There’s a guy that saw the problem anf fixed it!
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Don’t feel all along ;-)
Thanks. I thought they may decide on the efficiencies of EMALS over steam. I guess they thought otherwise.
They actually did it.
Cool!
As far as the British are concerned, the answer is certainly YES. I went to a lecture given by the guy who’s heading the project and, although he wasn’t giving too many details away, he was quite certain that an EMALS system would be fitted on at least one of them, with a probable refit on the second. Certainly the UK carriers would have plenty of electrical power available for such a system - they plan to have VERY big generators on them.
That’s an interesting point...
That’s an interesting point...
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