cropredy 17 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Hi -- Building HMS Illustrious (Heller 1/400 + WEM PE) at time of Taranto (Nov 1940) I've seen photos of the Illustrious at sea/at port with the hinged W/T masts all up, or all down. If I were modeling the Illustrious when it was launching Swordfish - would the masts be up or down? I can appreciate how the task force might not be transmitting to maintain secrecy but were the towers 'up' in order to receive commo from, say Alexandria? Thanks Link to post Share on other sites
Shar2 2,887 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 They would be down when launching and recovering aircraft. Link to post Share on other sites
bootneck 4,229 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 As SHAR2 says, they would be down for launching and recovering aircraft, no matter whether they were transmitting or on radio silence. Incidently, the rear masts - those behind the island on both sides, are dipole antennas with the cable running between the masts. Therefore all the masts, on each side, would be up or down together. Hope I've explained it correctly. cheers Link to post Share on other sites
cropredy 17 Posted November 25, 2012 Author Share Posted November 25, 2012 ah, perfect - thank you. BTW - are they down for safety reasons? One less thing to errantly crash into? Link to post Share on other sites
bootneck 4,229 Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 Yes, you don't want to be trying to turn into land running down a very narrow channel of masts! Link to post Share on other sites
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