Originally Posted by
thnarg
Torpedo was closely underslung on the Martin, and maybe the extra strutting was to prevent snagging as it fell away. Can’t work out what those eight vertical “hooks” next to the wheels are for though? The Great Lakes still has the mountings and what looks like a control cable.
The multiple Hooks are explained here thnarg -
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-col.../NH-70991.html
The hook was designed to catch a lateral arresting wire, as is used now. The small anchor-shaped hooks on the short axle- like members projecting inboard from each main wheel were intended to snag some of a series of fore-and-aft wires and keep the plane from veering off the flight deck to either side after hooking the arresting wire. These fore-and-aft wires, fitted to LEXINGTON when she was first commissioned in 1927, were removed about 1929