Aircraft Not Designed For But Operating From Aircraft Carriers
 

Is the membership able to cite other examples?
Carrier Ops With Unlikely Craft

- Ed

I'll take the starter for ten

B25

Bird Dog

https://cessnabirddog.org/2017/08/th...ajor-buang-ly/

Prestwick Pioneers from Seletar visited the deck of HMS Centaur and (maybe) Eagle.

AAC Beavers operated from carriers in the Middle and Far East in the 60s,

http://www.dhc-2.com/1489_XP824_Rich...flight_450.jpg

various types of Austers did the same earlier.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ger_A21295.jpg
The RN did the same with Tiger Moths

https://fft-keymilitary.b-cdn.net/si...?itok=37fQjm5m

Eric Brown flew both the Airacobra and Fiesler Storch on and off carriers.(The latter he landed ON the deck lift so it just needed wings folded and taken down)

BN Islander

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgsqOSSWkAAJNf9.jpg

How about the Army Air Corps Beavers based in Aden

How 'bout good thing he snagged the fourth wire!
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e26a65dc62.jpg

- Ed ;)

Spitfires and Hurricanes. OK, off only, but. And don't forget the Hurricanes operating from the merchant ships, again off only.

Didn't the P-51D Mustang undergo carrier trials?

Vampire … Winkle Brown

C-130?

US Navy trialling X-Wing Snub nosed fighters from the USS Long Island.
https://www.navyhistory.org/wp-conte...12/itUSUKX.jpg

One Hurricane pilot having taken off the carrier for Ceylon had engine problems so landed back on, sans hook. Impressed the Navy chaps, apparently. I can’t remember his name but he was a 30 Sqn Sgt pilot as I recall.

Well Seafire could land too

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f7137b0303.jpg

Sgt Whittaker was the 30 Sqn Hurricane pilot who landed safely back on HMS Indomitable sans arrester hook, following engine problems ATO on 20th March 1942. The aircraft, along with 19 other Hurricanes, had taken off from the carrier for Ratmalana, having been uncrated and assembled on board during the voyage. The reinforcement of Ceylon was just in time and the squadron played a vital role in repelling the anticipated attack by the Japanese Imperial Navy. Note that yet again the wily Japanese attacked on a Sunday, when of course the AD Radars were unmanned....

https://raf-waddington.com/history/ceylon2.html

From memory, Eric Brown's book stated that he landed a DH Mosquito on a carrier (and took off again).

https://www.bmaa.org/the-bmaa/bmaa-h...a-history-1989
https://www.bmaa.org/images/bmaa-his...ing-7sjf9y.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a5226f68b2.jpg

didn’t some hurricanes land on HMS glorious when being evacuated from Norway?

The U-2 did.

Already mentioned, but the B25 Mitchells were a famous early use of non-carrier aircraft 👍


Then there are just about every helicopter pressed into carrier ops through until the late 50s, and many beyond that. No ‘carrier’ design needed!

All the early P1127 and Harrier carrier landings were non-carrier design, which proves the concept ‘better to stop then land than to land, then stop’ 🤔😇

There is an apocryphal tale of a Neptune on patrol, spots a US carrier and decides to fly a circuit to it.

On final, pilots see a bulldozer pushing a jet off the deck to allow the Neptune, obviously in a dire emergency, to land.

Power up, gear up, get the heck out of Dodge...

Eric 'Winkle' Brown made the first pure jet carrier arrest in a SEA Vampire with a hook - designed for such evolutions. The C-130 was 'specially modified to make the unarrested deck landings with painted on the stbd side under cockpit window so FLYCO could see it: LOOK MA NO HOOK.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....76d0ef47f3.gif

Yes, they had sandbags in the tail to allow full braking on landing - I think these were the first monoplane fighters landed on a carrier without a hook.
Also Gladiators came aboard
Shortly after Glorious was sunk by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau - sinking and lack of rescue for many survivors was a SNAFU

From Jan 1940 to the Aug 1942, some 670 Hurricanes and Spitfires flew off carriers in the Mediterranean en-route to Malta.
There were also some trials carried out after WW2 regarding the operation of small gliders on carriers but these were tethered.

There was at least one Spitfire flown off a carrier bound for Malta who found his drop tank wouldn't feed, landed back on successfully.Yes.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....16c09b7da7.jpg

Link here to a float equiped Swordfish landing on a carrier deck:

https://navywings.org.uk/portfolio/f...-on-a-carrier/

Yes and his boss hadn't expected to see him again, so was surprised when he returned.

Don't forget the not so mighty Jag, though it was envisaged to use it as a carrier borne aircraft.

Does the Sea Vampire minus the U/C count?

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/co...ds_without_an/

https://www.raf.mod.uk/sites/raf-bet...5-0181-064.jpg

GIF: https://www.history.navy.mil/researc...1940/1949.html

de Havilland F.20 Sea Vampire Flexible Rubber Deck Arrest Test

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c10e8b76e7.gif

A P-47 Thunderbolt is pushed into position for take-off from the USS Manila Bay, Saipan, Marianas Islands, June 23, 1944 : WWIIplanes (reddit.com)

Photos of them on the flight deck.

On 23 June, Manila Bay came under enemy air attack during refueling operations east of Saipan. Four Aichi D3A Val dive bombers attacked her from dead ahead, dropping their bombs which exploded wide to port. As a precautionary and rather unusual move which Raymond A. Spruance later characterized as "commendable initiative", Manila Bay launched four of the P-47 thunderbolts she was ferrying to fly protective CAP until radar screens were clear of contacts. The Army fighters then flew to Saipan, their intended destination.

I seem to recall seeing footage of a Walrus or Sea Otter with wheels operating from a deck.

https://www.faaaa.asn.au/wp-content/...-SEPT-2017.pdf ". A Sea Otter landing on the flight deck of HMAS Sydney in the Jervis Bay Area early 1950"
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....666a72bcd1.jpg

Reminds me, the USN did fly Neptunes from carriers

https://www.scramble.nl/military-new...clear-neptunes


https://fireaviation.com/wp-content/...aunch_1949.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c885c6795d.jpg

The tower at Soest gave landing instructions to a passing Lightning who obliged by doing a wheels down approach to the 800m grass strip.
Then poured on the power and disappeared into the wide blue yonder. Circa 1975.

I remember a nice story in a book by a Beaver pilot.
Flying the local General back from Ethiopia to Aden a carrier appeared below.
The General apparently knew the Admiral and invited himself on board for tea.
Unfortunately our author forgot to tell ATC resulting in panic over a missing Beaver.

The concrete foundation for the rubber landing deck is still in situ at Farnborough right outside the control tower and next to the DME installation..

Reckon that was Think Like a Bird by Alex Kimball.

Absolutely wonderful book. :-)