Aircraft Carrier landing procedure in wartime?

[Mysticpuma]

Random question but as I understand it, aircraft land into the wind, so I suspect (don't know) that the carrier will turn into the wind for aircraft to land? 

I really don't know but is the carrier always moving for aircraft to land on (I assume being static would be dangerous in war conditions). 

Just asking as I do wonder if an aircraft approached the carrier in an emergency and had to land either direction, a moving target would be much harder to land on? 

Cheers, Mysticpuma 

[busdriver]

7 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

I suspect (don't know) that the carrier will turn into the wind for aircraft to land? 

Yes, SOP to launch or recover airplanes.

8 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

I really don't know but is the carrier always moving for aircraft to land on (I assume being static would be dangerous in war conditions). 

Trying to think of logical reasons for the carrier to be adrift rather than being underway...total power plant failure and battle damage. I'm going out on a limb and infer you're not thinking about a carrier tied up in port. There were five carrier battles, I can't recall any instance of airplanes coming aboard a dead in the water boat.

13 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

I do wonder if an aircraft approached the carrier in an emergency and had to land either direction, a moving target would be much harder to land on? 

If you read those pages @Amiral Crapaud posted recently, there is a brief entry for landing over the bow (inferring that emergency would be an approach into the wind).

[Props]

The US carriers always launched and landed aircraft into the wind under way, even when damaged after an attack. There are no instances of launching or landing aircraft while the ship is dead in the water or at full stop. I would have to check on specifics but there was one instance where a carrier went full speed astern and landed their birds over the bow, but the carrier's name eludes me for the moment, I have to look that one up again. 

The only aircraft launches from a warship that was at anchor were the earliest attempts and experiments off battleships in early biplanes. Those did not land back aboard, but on land.

[Amiral Crapaud]

4 hours ago, busdriver said:

Yes, SOP to launch or recover airplanes.

Trying to think of logical reasons for the carrier to be adrift rather than being underway...total power plant failure and battle damage. I'm going out on a limb and infer you're not thinking about a carrier tied up in port. There were five carrier battles, I can't recall any instance of airplanes coming aboard a dead in the water boat.

If you read those pages @Amiral Crapaud posted recently, there is a brief entry for landing over the bow (inferring that emergency would be an approach into the wind).

Haven't double checked the doctrine (handphones are not so handy 😞) but landing over the bow and launching over the stern did require the carrier to steam into the wind backwards, a thing US carriers can do at a very fair speed, thanks to their machinery.

Obviously, it's often not considered because it has more cons than pros, but it was done (on the very first day of the war if I remember correctly, but I gotta re-check the First Team ^^)

[Sea Serpent]

Somewhere in the literature for LSOs or something, there is probably a max crosswind component for safe carrier landings, and minimum relative headwind over the deck, depending on aircraft type and weight, wouldn’t there be?

[Amiral Crapaud]

19 hours ago, Props said:

The US carriers always launched and landed aircraft into the wind under way, even when damaged after an attack. There are no instances of launching or landing aircraft while the ship is dead in the water or at full stop. I would have to check on specifics but there was one instance where a carrier went full speed astern and landed their birds over the bow, but the carrier's name eludes me for the moment, I have to look that one up again. 

The only aircraft launches from a warship that was at anchor were the earliest attempts and experiments off battleships in early biplanes. Those did not land back aboard, but on land.

Here for the quote from the First Team. It was USS Lexington making a stern launch rather than a bow recovery 🙂

Sherman had most of his fighters on board, but the ones still aloft were getting low on fuel. Complicating matters was the Lexington’s crowded flight deck which took considerable time to respot for landings and takeoffs. Sherman wanted that relief combat air patrol aloft as soon as possible and decided to try an old carrier trick. At 1353, he reversed the Lexington’s powerful turboelectric drive and maneuvered his ship astern to secure sufficient wind over the deck.¹¹ Then at 1357 came the exceedingly rare sight of a stern launch, as six VF-2 Brewster Buffaloes took off over her fantail. Without having to go through a time-consuming respot of the flight deck, Sherman brought her bow into the wind and took on board his gas-starved fighters. Fighting Two maintained a combat air patrol until after dusk.

The note mentioning that Lexington & Saratoga's turboelectric drive allowed for full speed in reverse, while other ships were limited to one-third of available power.

 

[busdriver]

@Amiral Crapaud thanks, I couldn’t find that last night. I didn’t look too hard since I figured you knew where it was. 

[Mysticpuma]

On 5/31/2023 at 9:09 PM, busdriver said:

Trying to think of logical reasons for the carrier to be adrift rather than being underway...total power plant failure and battle damage. I'm going out on a limb and infer you're not thinking about a carrier tied up in port. There were five carrier battles, I can't recall any instance of airplanes coming aboard a dead in the water boat.

No, I won't try and blag it, I really did think of the aircraft carrier being easier to land on....adrift, which is obviously not something that would be done 🙂 

Fascinating points raised and much appreciate the education, cheers, Mysticpuma

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

Lots of new info for me in this thread.

Wheels

[Boom]

I really liked the landing lights system used on Japanese carriers. Found it fun to use in CFS 2

[busdriver]

@Mysticpuma just to expound on the theme of winds during takeoff and landing. From the cockpit perspective, headwinds are best (allow for a slower descent rate for a given distance), tailwinds are the worst (require a higher descent rate over a given distance), crosswinds can be a bitch, and calm conditions (no wind) are what the engineers printed in the performance charts. The boat has the advantage of being able to make its own headwind.