PPRuNe Forums - Why do Aircraft Carriers have the Island on the right ?

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- - Why do Aircraft Carriers have the Island on the right ? (https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/634765-why-do-aircraft-carriers-have-island-right.html)

Aircraft carrier islands

While looking at Chinese type 04 drawings - a question occurred to me.
Why are carrier Islands always on the starboard side?
I asked chatgpt if any carriers had port-side islands, and the lying thing tried to tell me the Charles de Gaulle, Cavatour and Foch all had portside islands.
Corrected it quick smart.
But the question remains.
Does it date back to the days when stuff was loaded from port side?
Therefore you wouldn't want a bleedin' great piece of superstructure in the way?
I think we should be told...

Maybe something to do with standard land-based circuits being left-hand. Just a thought.

I believe it's to do with piston engine prop torque - when powering up this causes the aircraft to pull to the left so having the island on the starboard side reduces the risk of it "pulling-in" to the island.

It’s deja vu all over again….

"Portside Islands".....I can think of one carrier off that could be accused of that.

I thought it was so you could tell the carrier was the right way round, what with the front and back both being square and all. If some had it one way and some had it the other, we would never know where we were.

Edit to add: If no island is visible on either side, then the aricraft carrier is the wrong way up, do not land, or it is not an aircraft carrier, same rule applies.

To save JE the trouble of posting it a third time he gave one reason in 2006 https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/634765-why-do-aircraft-carriers-have-island-right.html#post2536643
However: the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s in-house magazine, Scuttlebutt reported here https://mechtraveller.com/2019/11/wh...tarboard-side/ backs the turning to port reason.

Quote:

According to Chris Howat’s article,’The development of Naval Aviation Part 3 – 1917-1918‘ in Edition 58 of Scuttlebutt: the idea of an aircraft carrier with an island and a form of arrester gear was first proposed in 1915 by H.A. Williamson the Flying Officer on the Royal Navy’s seaplane carrier, HMS Ark Royal, while serving in the Gallipoli campaign.

In his detailed design, he chose to place the island on the starboard side because single-engine piston engined aircraft naturally swing to the left*** (port).

HMSs Argus and Furious had retractable chart houses. Early in her career Argus was fited with a temporary wooden island to test the effects on flying operations the article I quoted above states '“However,” writes Howat,”the pilots reported that a small structure on the starboard would help them judge their height. A wooden and canvas island was fitted and the ship would steam with the wind fine on the port bow.”.' The first USN carrier USS Langley was also flush decked and had electric propulsion (plus ca change).
The original design of HMS Eagle had port and starboard staggered islands but the port island was abandoned partly because trials on Furious had show the tendency of pilots to turn to port on aborting a landing.

Argus showing chart house
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2703a93801.jpg
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/i...ect/1060023091

Early ~~landing~~ 'alighting' trials.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/i...ect/1060023158

Quote:

Originally Posted by tartare (Post 11416543)

Chat GPT is an over confident idiot, however there were two Japanese carriers, Hiryu and Akagi, with islands on the wrong side. I think the idea was to operate in formation with left and right hand circuits respectively but whatever the reason it wasn't successful and future carriers were based on the Hiryu but with the island on the correct side. Which then weren't built due to events developing not necessarily to Japan's advantage.

Because after they did the first one that way it was going to be very confusing if they swapped round

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bing (Post 11418851)

ISWYDT - positively imperious!:ok:

Jack

It's because we British drive on the left.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NutLoose (Post 11419228)

It's because we British drive on the left.

Like wot they do in Japan.

Jack

This has just come up for me.

Carrier related; bloke I was at university with had been a nav on Shackletons (Bob xxxxx).
He told me about nicking a life sized wooden bear from somewhere in Canada & bringing it back in the bomb bay.
I've no reason to doubt him but he said (he was in his 50's in 2000) about lining the Shack up on a Carrier & putting a Mayday call in to land on the Carrier.
They apparently pushed an F4 Phantom off the deck before the Shack pulled away.
ISTR he said they'd got a couple of engines feathered or shut down on the approach.

Again, he was a genuine bloke but is there any truth in this?
(I've never been in the Forces but speculatively putting a Shack onto a carrier sounds optimistic having seen the wingspan).

Andy,

He was probably either exaggerating if he was really one of the crew or repeating a well known fable. It was discussed on one of the best of all PPRuNe threads in 2004(!)

https://www.pprune.org/aviation-hist...ml#post1166608