Hercules deck landing

[Charlie_c67]

Hmmm, a highly dangerous trial involving a Herc and a carrier. I know, let's pick a couple of guys who've never flown something this big before!!   

[kerick]

Hmmm, a highly dangerous trial involving a Herc and a carrier. I know, let's pick a couple of guys who've never flown something this big before!!   

And that really happened. No photoshop or AI. Just big brass spheres!

[scooter]

Hmmm, a highly dangerous trial involving a Herc and a carrier. I know, let's pick a couple of guys who've never flown something this big before!!   

And that really happened. No photoshop or AI. Just big brass spheres!

And a clear flight deck on the Forest Fire.

[Charlie_c67]

Get Eric Brown to do it and he'd probably do one of those dives they did to get in to Camp Bastion or wherever it was and still have loads of room to spare 

[PR19_Kit]

And all that without a hook or using the catapult! How come the USN never considered the C-130 for a COD contender? 

And I'm pretty sure that back in those days mobile phones didn't exist so why, oh WHY show the vid in the vertical 'Phone Format' mode? Both aeroplanes and carriers are essentially WIDE machines and deserve to be seen as such.

Some ill-educated youth has edited the original vid to show it in that STUPID format!     

[scooter]

And all that without a hook or using the catapult! How come the USN never considered the C-130 for a COD contender? 

Too big.  Notice the deck is entirely clear.  Try landing with aircraft parked on both sides of the angle, while planes are staged to launch off the bow cats.  And then try taking off again without being able to use the entire deck.

[Steel Penguin]

And all that without a hook or using the catapult! How come the USN never considered the C-130 for a COD contender? 

Too big.  Notice the deck is entirely clear.  Try landing with aircraft parked on both sides of the angle, while planes are staged to launch off the bow cats.  And then try taking off again without being able to use the entire deck.

and theres isnt much room left once you've got the navalised SR71 on board as well   

[seadude]

And all that without a hook or using the catapult! How come the USN never considered the C-130 for a COD contender? 

Too big.  Notice the deck is entirely clear.  Try landing with aircraft parked on both sides of the angle, while planes are staged to launch off the bow cats.  And then try taking off again without being able to use the entire deck.

and theres isnt much room left once you've got the navalised SR71 on board as well   

Yep, that was actually proposed. Pics are below from a magazine I have. And lest we forget, a U-2 spyplane also landed on the deck of a carrier.

[Steel Penguin]

That is indeed the article i was referring too     

[PR19_Kit]

Too big.  Notice the deck is entirely clear.  Try landing with aircraft parked on both sides of the angle, while planes are staged to launch off the bow cats.  And then try taking off again without being able to use the entire deck.

So why did they even bother trying it?

[scautomoton]

So why did they even bother trying it?

I guess its good to know that you can if you need to for some reason.

[Steel Penguin]

So why did they even bother trying it?

I guess its good to know that you can if you need to for some reason.

an evacuation similar to the last days of the Vietnam war ?  if you can get a deck in place, you can get an awful lot of bodys out very quickly,  and to be honest its a wonderful " look what we can do"   to make the other sides force planners have nightmares. 

[scooter]

Too big.  Notice the deck is entirely clear.  Try landing with aircraft parked on both sides of the angle, while planes are staged to launch off the bow cats.  And then try taking off again without being able to use the entire deck.

So why did they even bother trying it?

Because its there.  And I'm sure both BuAir and BuShips were like "Hey, the Marines have this nifty new tactical transport.  Can we see if we can land it on a supercarrier?"

[Captain Canada]

The Herc made it look easy !

[Weaver]

Too big.  Notice the deck is entirely clear.  Try landing with aircraft parked on both sides of the angle, while planes are staged to launch off the bow cats.  And then try taking off again without being able to use the entire deck.

So why did they even bother trying it?

It was a limited test to see if it was possible should an emergency long-range supply mission become neccessary.

Big COD aircraft were proposed several times. Boeing did serious work on 727 and 737 COD projects, even going so far as to fly test landings at at NAS Whidbey Island, which had carrier deck markings and a CCA system. Boeing's test pilot was reportedly able to put the 737 down and stop within the 600ft angled deck area with 41ft to spare, and that was without a tail hook or arrestor gear. McDonnell Douglas also offered the DC-9 as a COD aircraft. Hawker Siddeley offered the 748 and Fokker the F.28.

The picture of a COD 737 on finals to a carrier with it's hook down got me wondering if dropped flaps were available for the Airfix kit, which is how I found that Laci Models site.