Originally Posted by
Coltishall. loved it
Admittedly, years ago. Just wonder how often this went on in the past and what a waist and when did it end? I'm no echo warrior but there must be so much s£it down there?
vid around 1:16 and the "cradle" goes to the depths
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The Sea Vixen - YouTube
At first I thought this must be a windup when posted in the Mil Forum, then it shifted here and the discussion went downhill
Seriously, all steam catapults in the RN (until Ark Royal) launched fixed wing with Bridles, which went into the 'oggin: not just the Vixen. Ark was fitted with bridle catchers allowing their re-use up to (IIRC) 20 or 30 times, when they were then untethered and allowed to go off the launch.
The USN developed a replacement whereby the shuttle latches on to the NLG and pulls the aircraft down the cat without a bridle.
As mentioned, the Vixen didn't have a 'weapons bay'
This photo shows the bridle catcher ropes :
And here's the bridle being arrested by the catcher as the F4K launches from Ark waist cat
