Bing,
Your tale about the Phantom trials may have been skewed in the retelling; if nil wind is required over the deck, the ship simply steams downwind, at the windspeed. No requirement to reverse/back up/steam astern
ISTR we did the occassional Gannet launch for some reason with little wind over deck, but the only other launch/recoveries downwind were we poor souls in the helicopters. Quite a strange sensation approaching a carrier from ahead, knowing (hoping) that the relative winds all sorted out by the time we got over Spot 2 or thereabouts.
Piccie of an aft facing approach
here.