on my hase model, I saw a arrester hooklike thing on the end of the fuselage.
what is this used for?[?]
No - the arresting hook is for land-based emergency use on runways where arresting cables are available.
I heard somewhere (may have been my friend, the former Viper driver) that the Air Force only allows fighters to land on runways equipped with the arrestor cables. This makes sense from a money saving and safety standpoint, but it severely limits thier landing operations. I guess it’s a little off topic, but interesting nonetheless.
Air Force aircraft are not designed for carrier landings, the landing gear would go right through the airframe, the aircraft would be destroyed.
If an AF pilot were to have an emergency, he would not be able to land on a carrier. His best action would be to eject alongside the carrier.
Yup, I was very surprised to see those hooks on my models too! Thanks for the info!
The F-16 cannot do it BUT I do have a photo of the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk loaded with F-16s. I photographed it in the early 80s in San Dego. They craned them aboard to ship them to Israel. I thought of making a model like this, as a conversation piece, but have not found the right scale F-16s. [:p]
The Air Force does not restrict fighter aircraft from landing on runways that are not equipped with arrestor cables. If this was true then they would not be able to land at civilian airports, as they do for air shows.
T.Young [8-]
That’s right…They do however work it into the flight plan that if they need to make an arresting gear recovery they have a divert airfield within range.
CE can set up a MAAS (Mobile Aircraft Arresting System) in about 1 1/2 hours. If the unit is readily available.
Wade
for the question, all USAF fighters (anything that goes high speed) have arresting hooks, the F-100 to the F/A-22 will have them it’s for them to engage the Barrier if they lose Hydraulic Pressure inflight and blow the landing gear down,
The Barrier used to be a net about 2.5 to 3 Feet high (this item generally damaged the aircraft when used) but now it’s a cable just like the one on a Carrier but is uses the Anti-Skid system from the good ole BUFF instead of steam compression on the carrier,
And if the USAF fighter had used the barrier, there is a sheer pin that is broken that keeps the hook straight to engage the barrier cable properly (the force of decelleration causes the pin the break) and the USAF doesn’t restrict their planes to only airfield with barriers, the barriers are there to stop the plane if it’s speed is to great for controlled departure of the runway (to turn off of the runway to a taxi way) most of the time when the barriers are engaged is at the last moment and the pilot make that call when they know that they’ll be running off the runway, I’ve seen F-15’s & F-16’s use the barrier for number of reasons mostly when the have hydraulic failures and called in an IFE (In Flight Emergency), with Hydraulic problems and as a last measure have the Barrier set up for possible engagement, most military airfields have 3 barriers, 1 at the middle of the runway and the others about 1500’ from the ends, some fiels only have 2 and they’ll be at the ends, when the plane lands they don’t do the carrier thing, they touch down and Aero Brake until the plane is slow enough to have controlled rollout, but if they can’t they’ll touch the nose gear down and drop the Arresting Hook and engage the barrier at the end of the runway to stop and shut down the engine(s)
actually all it would take to land a Viper on a carrier is to upgrade its main and nose landing gear to handle the heavier force of a carrier landing. But taking off now thats an entirely different can of worms…
In the finnish air force they use the arrestor hook on the F-18 Hornet to shorten the landing when operating from road based airfields.
According to the air force website the plane will stop in 300meters when using the arreestor hook.
Some nice photos behind these links,
http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/index.php?id=79&kuva=galleria_hn2.jpg
http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/index.php?id=79&kuva=galleria_hn1.jpg
Planning on doing a diorama like the picture behinf the second link.
Michael
In order for the F-16 to land on a carrier it would require the aft fuselage be strengthened to absorb the impact and energy dissipation of the cable engagement. It would also require a significant strengthening of all three landing gear to take the shock of the semi-controlled crash the Navy calls “landings”. All current Navy/Marine aircraft have a dual wheel nose gear with a retractable/moveable arm on the front to engage the catapult shuttle. Putting a dual wheel nose gear on the F-16 would require a major redesign of the front end. The current single wheel retracts and rotates sideways so that it lays flat in a fairly shallow wheel well. The twin wheel setup would require much more room.
The Navy has or least had a handfull of F-16N s that they used at Top Gun for aggressor aircraft. They were landbase use only.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
If they can land C-130 on a carrier almost anything is possible. Well almost anything. You could strip the arresting gear, clear any A/C from the free shot line( look that one up[:D]) get 50+ knots of wind across the deck with the F-16 down to stall speed and maybe Crash& Salvage could rescue the pilot from his burning wreckage. Just Kidding.[(-D]Besides,we all know the Falcon prefers nice 12K runways. Naval Aviation is too harsh on those little legs.[swg]
Eddie
I remember 10 years or so ago at the Airshow at the Naval Air Station outside of New Orleans an F-14 ended up having to “catch” the barrier cable because of a possible landing gear problem. I remember it being no more than the cable stretched across the runway and attached to long lengths of huge anchor chain it drug behind the aircraft for only a short way. The gear stayed down and locked so the “arrested” landing was uneventful. At that time F-15’s, A-10’s and F/A-18’s operated out of the airfield as well as the Coast Guard.
Even if the F-16 were capable of landing on a carrier, the Navy wouldn’t let it since I assume there are very few (if any) USAF fast jet pilots who are carrier-qualified. Landing on a carrier is unlike anything else, and you have to have a special qualification to do it.
72cuda is right on the money with a very accurate description pf air field operations.
The barriers used by the USAF are the BAC-9 and BAC-12. The BAC12 is the heavy duty one.
During simulated war time conditions the USAF practice landing and taking off from highways. A runway can be any stretch of highway wide and long enough to support operations. I have been in units that have practiced this.
Remember an F-4 back in the 70’s that had to use this system.They had time to inform the airfield and all other operations ceased and the crash crews came out. Landing was made with no injuries to the aircrew or damage to the a/c. The a/c was towed to the ramp. Good system to have when needed.
could they seriously land a C-130 on a carrier!?!?WOW
or… it may be, " hey look! gullible’s written on the ceilling!"[:D]
Yes, they can land a C-130 on a carrier, picture is in Squadron’s “C-130 In Action” book, they also did the same with a U-2