The driver jumped into the netting. The towing arm sheared as per the design spec. Brake failure is definitely conjecture.

As far as accidentally putting the tug in reverse is concerned, The Helpful Stacker's earlier comment is spot on. Moving an ac from shed to line to HAS etc is the most routine of tasks and possibly the most career threatening if anything goes wrong.

Wub said...
"Was a surprise to see how small our aircraft carriers are, when dwarfed by a cruise ship.
That's exactly what I said to Mrs wub as I took this last week:"

Aviate looks at the excellent pic and muses that in time of war if the top deck of the cruise ship was full of aircraft, they could be launched [enhanced Merlin style] and get to flying speed before they hit the water! :rolleyes:

Do we really need [or will actually get!] new aircraft carriers? ;)

Must have taken some force to rip the tail round like that!

Silsoesid, I so hope that is a waw waw!:ok:

The way it's sitting on the radome doesn't look cheap....

Naval Airman joins Submaine Service?

:}Its a folding tail. To make more space.:}

It's a viscous fluid flexible drive to allow for a great degree of misalignment.

And they have flexible pipes and rubber cables. Seems to do the trick.

The Wessex tail folded too. http://celag.free.fr/museum/h34/images/h34_307.jpg

The CH-53E also has a folding tail boom:
note the diagonal break line on the boom in the first photo:

http://www.military.cz/usa/air/in_se...53e/ch53sm.jpg

http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/1/2...1201495392.jpg

A rather more graphic example of the CH-53 folding tailboom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWh8QXHQEUg

Reckon SilsoeSids' fishing trip has been pretty successful so far:D

Most Naval/Maritime Helicopters have a folding tail. T'otherwise they wouldn't fit in the Hangar.

The more I see of helicopters the more I am becoming a "fan" of the notar ducted fan thingamajig

That long driveshaft or whatever voodoo the merlin uses, scary scary.

As to the chinny.......18 inches of clearance, I think I'll walk.

Here's a Merlin tucked up for bed aboard HMS Lancaster:

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2..._01/merlin.jpg

Ahhh,....the trusty Mk 11 DC.....a superb weapon.

why don't they just make bigger hangars? :confused:

Hardly surprising when you consider that they are not really aircraft carriers at all.

They were introduced as "through deck cruisers", and previous to that "command cruisers".

Absolutely right, so far as the second sentence is concerned, but don't forget that this nomenclature was a Baldrick-like "cunning plan" to get the INVINCIBLE Class aircraft carriers approved in the first place, just as the County Class DLGs were called destroyers to get them approved, even though they in turn were virtually replacements for cruisers ....

Jack

And built like ocean liners. I was brought up on them. My father was the Signals Officer (and in fact the first officer appointed, before commissioning) of HMS Hampshire in 1962 I think, and then later the XO of HMS Antrim, in about 1974. Great ships apart from the hangar/stupid track to the flightdeck. They were specced with an officers' speedboat, the glorious Fairey Huntress.

OK, I'll bite.

'Cos we'd need bigger boats! And that means bigger money.









Which we ain't got.

Give me strength...:ugh:

On the Wessex at Weston - look closely and you will see the hinges
On the frigate flight deck the flag staff can be removed