Taking off from an aircraft carrier has always been a huge problem. In addition to vertical stubs and landings, skid-jump decks, the most common way people have come up with is to use catapults to assist carrier-based aircraft and eject them. Speaking of catapults, the most familiar ones are steam catapults and electromagnetic catapults. In fact, before them, there are many types of catapults, which can be described as a variety of species, eight immortals across the sea, today we will talk about this topic.
There are many kinds of aircraft carrier catapults
It is now recognized that the world's earliest catapult was developed by Captain Theodore Ellison of the United States in 1911. But in fact, long before Theodore Ellison, Langley, who was at the same time as the Wright brothers, invented the spring catapult, and the airplane had just appeared. Langley's catapult borrowed springs and slides to help, but unfortunately, just after ejecting the plane, an upside-down onion fell into the river.
Langley used catapults when he developed the aircraft
Under the same concept, the Wright brothers also created a falling heavy catapult, which consisted of three ropes and a legal code, and the weight was suspended on a high shelf, and when used, it fell, and gravity turned into potential energy, driving the aircraft to slide forward. This design, while very primitive, is simple and reliable, and once appeared on warships for catapult carrier-based aircraft.
Drop heavy catapult
However, after all, the catapult power of the falling heavy catapult is very limited and cannot meet the demand, so later people installed a flywheel on the falling heavy catapult for storing mechanical energy and pulling the steel cable through the clutch to eject. Most of the early battleships and heavy cruisers were equipped with flywheel catapults.
Flywheel catapult
Flywheel catapults were heavily used on cruisers and battleships
Not only that, but flywheel catapults were also used on aircraft carriers at the time, such as the U.S. Navy's SARATOGA and Lexington. At the same time, the British aircraft carriers "Triumph" and "Courage" were equipped with compressed air pressure catapults, which could play the same role. However, at that time, the main way to leave the aircraft carrier was to use its own power to take off directly, which continued until the end of World War II.
Using the aircraft carrier LEXINGTON, which was converted after the war
By 1943, due to advances in technology, a high-powered hydraulic catapult replaced the flywheel catapult and became a key equipment necessary for a large number of escort aircraft carriers, such as the H2-1 hydraulic catapult modified by the Enterprise, which could accelerate a 11,000-pound carrier-based aircraft to a speed of 70 miles per hour at a distance of 73 feet.
The Enterprise's hydraulic catapult did not understand bombers
At the same time, with the increasing proliferation of German submarines, some merchant ships also had to be equipped with catapults and carrier-based aircraft to defend themselves at critical moments. However, because the space of the merchant ship was too small, the traditional catapult could not be used at all, so the British invented a rocket-boosted catapult to be used with the Hurricane fighter.
Rocket-assisted catapults
In addition, there were also various designs such as explosive catapults and electric catapults at that time, until 1951, British Lieutenant Colonel Colin Mitchell proposed to connect the vapor of the aircraft carrier steam turbine to the catapult, and then invented the steam catapult for the aircraft carrier, and then declared the unification of the river.
Steam catapult
Steam catapults were first invented by the British, but the real development was in the United States, the most famous of which the C13 series has been equipped with "Kitty", "Constellation", "Enterprise", "America", "Kennedy" and 10 "Nimitz" class, as well as France's "Charles de Gaulle", is the most widely used steam catapult in the world today.
The C13 series is the most widely used steam catapult
Although the steam catapult is high-tech, but its principle is not complicated at all, the real difficulty is the cylinder manufacturing process, tens of meters of cylinder block is not allowed to have a trace of air leakage, which is difficult for most countries in the world. At present, only a few countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and China have broken through the steam catapult technology.
The cylinder block of the steam catapult is the most complex
However, steam catapult also has many shortcomings, such as complex maintenance and maintenance, can not be used in alpine areas, catapult power is difficult to adjust, is not conducive to UAV on the ship and so on. Therefore, in recent years, starting from the Ford-class aircraft carrier in the United States, it has been equipped with a new electromagnetic catapult, and China is also following suit, and it is expected that the 003 aircraft carrier under construction will also use electromagnetic catapults.
Electromagnetic catapult
The benefits of the electromagnetic catapult are obvious, the catapult force is adjustable, the maintenance is simple, but it is not without shortcomings, first of all, it causes great pressure on the power system on the aircraft carrier, and requires an all-electric integrated management system to be deployed. Secondly, because it is a new concept of the product, there are too many new technologies, resulting in a high probability of indigestion, the "Ford" has been in service for several years, and the problem of electromagnetic catapults has not been fully solved. At this point, we are not only new to the scene, but also jump forward, and the expected 003 will also encounter a lot of problems on the electromagnetic catapult, which requires us to be mentally prepared.
Electromagnetic catapult aboard the Ford
In any case, from the earliest spring catapults, falling heavy catapults, to flywheel catapults, compressed air catapults, hydraulic catapults, rocket booster catapults, explosive catapults, electric catapults, and now steam catapults, electromagnetic catapults, human beings for the carrier aircraft from aircraft carriers and ships to take off smoothly, can be said to have exhausted their brains, each of which will bring about a huge increase in combat effectiveness. It is believed that after the electromagnetic catapult, we will also invent more advanced and more efficient catapults, so that the carrier-based aircraft can more calmly leave the aircraft carrier and soar in the sea and air.
The development of catapults was forced out by carrier-based aircraft