Quote:
Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding
I imagine it was kinda like being in a cage in front of an aircraft carrier blast deflector as the pilot spun up the engines in an F-18. I hope so. I did (and still do) hate those fuking red wasps.
It wasn’t just about killing them.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tcoat
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ok ok... Back when I was an aircrewman in the navy, the plane I worked on/in was always tied down right behind the starboard bow catapult (cat-1) until it was our turn to launch. We were always last out because '
the whale' was a major PITA to taxi and launch. When a plane launches, there's a point when the catapult shuttle is under tension against what's called a holdback fitting while a bunch of stuff is checked. The engines are kept at full throttle until either launch, or abort. It takes a while to bleed down the cat so either way, usually for an awkward length of time, the plane sits there pushing air like mad.
One time while we were waiting for our turn, something went wrong with the cat holding an F-14 under tension. No biggie except this time, they couldn't get the cat to bleed down. We knew right underneath us, people were scrambling like mad to fix something. Up top, the water-cooled jet blast deflector was slowly losing its fight with the F-14 at full military. I don't remember exactly how long it took but after several minutes it finally blew in a massive steam cloud. The right side of it literally melted. All seven of us were packed in at the aft bulkhead of the cabin, watching the plexiglas parts of the canopy slowly bubble and sag while the mission commander, sitting at the furthest aft position, stayed on the radio listening to the air boss coordinate the shit show.
Imagine the collective hooting and hollering when we finally heard the F-14 shut down its engines. Yay! The plane was horribly damaged but we weren't cooked.
THE END
