Originally Posted by
Terry McCassey
I was told that the strop during the launch was thrown forward and into the sea. £10 a time for the strop I believe in the early seventies !
That used to be true up until the end of the fifth commission of Ark Royal (my time on board) which ended on 5 October 1966. During her subsequent refit which enabled her amongst other things to operate the Phantom, she had the Van Zelm bridle (strop) arresting gear fitted which resulted in the extensions forward of the flight deck which caught the strop.
Eagle did the Phantom trials in March 1969 but I don't know whether the bridle arresting gear was fitted at that time.
Edit: found out that Eagle never had bridle catchers fitted so the bridles would have been ditched on each launch so Terry is correct that this occurred up until the early 70's - Eagle decommissioned for the last time in 1972.
The reason for the extended nosewheel leg was to avoid the necessity for the pilot to put in a large tailplane angle in order to rotate the aircraft as it left the bows. (quote by Cdr Hefford who flew the Phantom on deck trials - in 1969 CO C Squadron, Boscombe Down). The Spey engines were installed at a slight downward angle compared with the US engined Phantoms.