We should buy 50 of those B 52's the cousins have got stashed in the desert,we wudden need no dammed carriers then,one can put a bit of stick about anywhere in the world with 50 B 52's.
Prolly get then for a good price as well.

:rolleyes:

Unfortunately, all but a handful were cut up for saucepans as a part of SALT II. The remainder needed to provide enought airframes to last till 2038, the fleet retirement date. (They won't at their present usage, which is why a new bomber is now a very high priority for about 2018-2020...)

That's right Drapes. And cheaper than building 2 French-designed aircraft carriers of our own... :ok:

ORAC, hehe, making saucepans out of aircraft. And to think that 55 years ago they were doing just the opposite...?!

One has mentioned on many occasions one thinks the Concorde would have made a spiffing bomber ,no great modification needed,our new generation of nukes are so small now that the pilot could just open his window and fling the buggah out over the target.
:rolleyes:

3 pages and the answer is....


we don't know.

Well that worked in the movie "Airport 4 the Concorde" (at least I think was 4) when Kennedy opened the window and fired a flare gun.

God, what a stupid movie.:yuk:

I was once invited for a drink on HM Narrowboat Andrew when she was moored near Rugby. A plaque in the saloon said that Lt. Andrew commanded the first-ever Press Gang. The service has retained the name on the assumption that nobody would join voluntarily.

One has a excellent book on the history of the Press Gang,there's a lot of mythology associated the name Press Gang,the idea that they rushed through the street nabbing people willy nilly is just myth, what the RN needed were experienced seafarers so mosty they raided Merchant Ships,and the places merchant seamen lurked, grog shops brothels,church meetings and such, a lot of British sea farers buggad off and joined American vessels after the cousins had that rebellion of theirs,apparently the pay was much better, the cousins were ok at herding cattle shooting Indians and the like, but as sailors they was ****e, ergo Brit sailors were in great demand,so Royal Navy ships used to stop American Vessels on the high seas and pinch the chaps back,started our second scuffle with the cousins that did, the War of 1812.
:cool:

FSL

Me old man's last ship, the escort carrier HMS Chaser, with island.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...on/0301001.jpg

Rules of the air say you always turn right to avoid a collision ... sorry ;)

Torque & P Factor
 

ORAC is correct. The Island is on the right because of the propeller airplane's tendency to go left with power added. The earliest carrier, USS Langley CV1, lay all its stacks and antennas horizontal to clear the deck for flight ops. When not in flight ops, stacks & antenna were vertical. After Langley came the standard island on the right on all carriers. Only a few were built with no island at all; USS Long Island pops into my mind as one. I operated on USS Lexington CV 16 and USS BonHommeRichard CV31 before departing for Eastern.

An answer.....
 

HF antennae. Really, really annoying to find them "up" at night when they were supposed to be neatly down and out of the way....:rolleyes:

AA,

Aft facing landings were (still are?) always an option for helo ops on CVA's. As long as the wind over the deck gave a downwind component for a normal approach, we'd come to a hover ahead of the boat and let it come to us: sort of!

There is a set of documents on the US Navy History site, here which gives a reason for the island on the starboard side, under the Langley paper:

I was'nt actually talking about other air craft, I was suggesting that,
as was noted by pilots in WW2, most pilots aoutomaticaly broke left when fired on from behind. A fact used to advantage by the more astute fighter pilots.


But your comment does point out another reason for the having the bridge on the right, the rules of the road dictate that a vessel shall
give way to one crossing her track from the right hand side so the bridge
being on the right makes sense from that point of view

The aircraft having a tendency to turn to the right because of the propellor wouldn't really be valid. (Not all aircraft have clockwise props)

If they turn right when power is added (take-off) then they would turn left when power is reduced (landing).

Seeing bouys in narrow channels would make sense if you always had to pass to the left of them and giving way to ships on the right would also make sense.

I thought there would be a very good reason why all nationalities build them the same.

My experience has been that whenever I ask a 'stupid' question, there is a sensible, logical answer.

So the Russian ones are on the left then :8

damn, someone got there before me :(

I rather doubt it...my father was at Salerno on an Escort carrier; there was no wind, and the ship going flat out at 17kn was not good enough for the Seafires. Within a day or two most of the squadron was wrecked in landing accidents, no enemy action !

Why do Aircraft Carriers have the Island on the right ?
 

Obviously it had to be placed on one side or the other, any particular reason they’ve always been built on the right side ?

Only two carriers were constructed with the island on the left. Both were Japanese of WW2 vintage, the Hiryu and the Akagi. Every one before and since has been on the right.

I read somewhere that there is a natural tendency for pilots to 'veer left', so putting the island on the right gave them less to run into if they missed a wire while landing.

Port
 

Probably goes way back in time. Ships docked on the port side because the steering oar was on the starboard side..German backbord and steurer bord. The island would hinder loading so was stuck on the right hand side. Simples.
If the veering left theory held water then it would have to be reversed in the southern hemisphere due to the coriolis effect.

..........

Is that why I keep goin' around and around in circles.....?

Me 'Coriolis' has a lot to answer for.....

Aircraft carriers dock with Starboard side to

It may have been because most American aircraft engines rotated right-hand, looking form the cockpit, which at low airspeed and high power, would induce a torque roll to the left ... away from the aircraft carrier "island". I can't explain British carriers, which had to handle engines rotating to the left, but, then again, the British drive on the wrong side of the road ... or sumthin'.:)

Cheers,
Grog

When driving a ship you are required to "give way to the right" meaning that any vessel approaching you from the right hand side has right of way. It therefore makes sense that the driver is on the right side,(Starboard side) to see any stand on vessels. Carriers may perhaps follow this principal

IIRC
 

This excludes lighthouses ;-)

Because the planes would crash into them if they were on the left.

That is because the Americans bolted their propeller on to the back of the engine and turned it around whereas the Brits bolted theirs to the front.

The answer is simple.

The island is on the right side.
If it wasn't on the right side it would be the wrong side!

:ugh:

I'll get my coat....

Not even the Navy know that

https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explo...the%20nickname.

Quite amusing to see all the theories projected in a 14 year old thread until finally Reefrat comes up so quickly with the simple answer that would have made most sense to the senior officers who would have dictated the requirement in the design of the first purpose-built aircraft carriers, and could or would not have been aviators themselves in that era. The captain's sea cabin in virtually every reasonably large power-driven vessel is on the starboard side for precisely that reason so that, when called up by the officer of the watch regarding a close quarters navigational situation, they can if necessary look out and promptly see for themselves what's what on the "danger" side.

All the aviation related theories, however technically commendable, are therefore very much downstream.

I would also suggest that, contrary to Ivor's suggestion, the Andrew Miller connotation is fairly widely known in the Royal Navy.

Jack

Back in a post in April 2006 I linked to the USN History site with the same explanation of the island location.

Still to be referenced on page 18, along with fascinating mention of electric powered ships earlier in the article :hmm:

Captain Coriolis Mandolin is a left hand plucker.

If the island was on the left someone would ask why it wasn't on the right!

FB

As did the Merlin, the Griffon, which was designed/built at the request of the Royal Navy, rotated in the opposite direction, but that can be explained by the Society of British Aircraft Constructors in the late 1930's establishing guidelines including the direction of propeller rotation. Most British engines seemed to have the Griffon direction of rotation, wonder why the Merlin was an odd man out.

As to why the island is where it is seems to fall into the Royal Navy's lap. The first purpose designed carrier ever was HMS Hermes, initially it was designed to have an island on both sides with a full length deck running between them. The result of flight trials on the Eagle and Argus prompted a design change for the island to be placed to starboard, the reason given in texts being pilots preferred to turn to port if overshooting, the standard left hand circuit and having a clear view of the deck on downwind would be my assumption as well. The aircraft embarked on the Hermes, Fairey Flycatcher fighters and Fairey IIID, had the same rotation as the Griffon, so torque effects don't seem to have been a consideration.

https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/UK/ww1/hms-hermes

The first purpose built carrier.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hermes_(95)

Aeroplanes keep to the left, as do cars in any civilised country, so the island had to be on the right. The Cousins copied the design before realising that their cars had the wheel on the wrong side, too late mate.

I suppose that much depends upon when the left hand circuit became standard practise. If it was in place before the advent of the aircraft carrier then it would be common sense to place the island where a pilot could see the "runway" at all times during the circuit - hence the island on the right.

After initially deciding to build the island in the middle, they had a change of heart and plumped for the right...