Tailsitter for take off

[marky sparky 57]

Hi.

This might seem a dumb question for many, but I've seen photo's of Scimitars' and Buccaneers ready for take off on aircraft carriers tail sitting, I just wondered how they did it. (sarcastic comments accepted but don't be too boring, thanx).

[bentwaters81tfw 5,195]

They use the tail bumper and pull the bridle taut against the shuttle, tipping the aircraft. It is released when the cat fires and breaks the holdback.

I'll post a video link when I find it.

 

 

[Graham Boak 4,851]

The why is to put them in a high lift attitude for climbing away after being catapulted, so I suggest that the connection to the catapult is aft of the cg, do that it pulls the tail down when tensioned.

 

PS what he said.

[Rob G 3,397]

@bentwaters81tfw thanks for sharing those videos, they answered quite a few questions!

[noelh 1,549]

That's why the FG1 Phantom had the extendable nosewheel leg. It produced a high angle of attack which allows greater lift initially. Eminently sensible. You'd wonder why the Americans never copied it.

[Procopius 27,202]

6 minutes ago, noelh said:

That's why the FG1 Phantom had the extendable nosewheel leg. It produced a high angle of attack which allows greater lift initially. Eminently sensible. You'd wonder why the Americans never copied it.

It wasn't needed. Even the Essex class ships were bigger than Ark Royal and Eagle.

[marky sparky 57]

Thankyou very much for that, much appreciated!

[Bullbasket 7,312]

12 hours ago, Procopius said:

12 hours ago, Procopius said:

It wasn't needed. Even the Essex class ships were bigger than Ark Royal and Eagle.

 

Bare in mind that I'm just a simple "pongo" and don't know much about floaty things on the water, but why would the size of the carrier have anything to do with it? Would not the length of the catapult be similar?

 

John. 

[silverkite211 70]

13 hours ago, noelh said:

That's why the FG1 Phantom had the extendable nosewheel leg. It produced a high angle of attack which allows greater lift initially. Eminently sensible. You'd wonder why the Americans never copied it.

Actually, US Navy Phantoms do have an extendable nosewheel leg, it just wasn't the double length type as used on Royal Navy Phantoms. It seemed to be the F-4Bs that it was used the most on and, even then, it wasn't used all the time. I don't know that I've seen an F-4J using it, maybe the engines developed more thrust by that time and it wasn't necessary.

[Tailspin Turtle 786]

1 hour ago, silverkite211 said:

Actually, US Navy Phantoms do have an extendable nosewheel leg, it just wasn't the double length type as used on Royal Navy Phantoms. It seemed to be the F-4Bs that it was used the most on and, even then, it wasn't used all the time. I don't know that I've seen an F-4J using it, maybe the engines developed more thrust by that time and it wasn't necessary.

The F-4J also needed the extendable nose landing gear strut for a catapult launch.

[dnl42 1,394]

The Grumman S-2 had a tail wheel for catapult launches, with its nose LG off-deck. See a launch in this video of HMCS Bonaventure operations starting at about 5m

[silverkite211 70]

22 hours ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

The F-4J also needed the extendable nose landing gear strut for a catapult launch.

You would certainly be the man who would know.

[j-fever 31]

Awesome video, thanks.