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Re: [OM] IMG: B-25 from the Archives

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: B-25 from the Archives
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2015 08:51:50 -0500
There was a lot more than 35mph coming over the flight deck. The Hornet (an Essex class carrier) was capable of nearly 33 knots on its own. During the Dolittle takeoff there was a 40 knot gale blowing. The only casualty during the launch was a seaman who was blown by the wind into one of the props and suffered a badly mangled arm. The history of the Dolittle raid is covered in some detail here starting about 1/4-way down the page. <http://www.airvectors.net/avb25.html>

But sometimes the wind speed over the deck is just too much and the ship needs to run in reverse to compensate. Although I worked for IBM for 30 years I also worked for a couple other companies after that. For a couple of years I was the engineering design manager for Henschel which was a long time Navy contractor going back to the 1920s. My engineering team designed and built navigation consoles for the Nimitz and other Nimitz class carriers. These could be used by the air-boss to control the ship during launches. Their features included telling the air-boss how to run the ship in reverse when wind speed over the deck was too great for safe launches going forward.

ps: If you ever get on a WWII or Korean war era ship and get onto the bridge you'll find many instruments with the name Henschel. We even made brass ship's bells long ago.

Chuck Norcutt


On 12/11/2015 10:09 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
   Thanks for posting, Chuck, although my stomach is a bit queasy just
watching those ships pitch and roll. What really strikes me is how slow
those B-25's appear to be going when they take off. I know they had a good
headwind combined with the ship's headway, but they appear to be traveling
about 30 mph relative to the ship. Years ago I saw one take off at the
Geneva Airshow and I came away with the same impression. The plane looked
like it was traveling about 40-50 mph when the wheels left the ground.

The B-25 was unique in that it had two distinct stall speeds. One with
the engines going and one without. When the engines were cranked up to
maximum take-off power, they could get off the ground right around 70
mph with all the prop-wash flowing over the wing. So, if the ship was
was under full steam into the wind, you might have 35 mph coming down
the flight deck. The airplane only needs to pick up another 35 mph to
get off the ground.

The problem was that if you had an engine failure before you got above
engine-out stall speed, your flight was done. Normal stall speed was
like another 40 mph faster.

AG

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