Catapults History

Catapults made a big impact in the history of aircraft carriers with the long process to launch. Catapults changed the way the US Navy launched fighter planes off carriers. Without the catapult technology, and the ground crew on aircraft carriers, The U.S would have not been able to launch planes off carriers because planes didn't have enough runway to go full speed to take off. One of the most important things before launching an aircraft is the ground crew. The ground crew gives the pilot signals to move around the carrier. Once the aircraft starts moving the crew gives the pilot their trust to follow their signals without mistakes. After the crew gets the aircraft on the catapult they have to measure the fuel tank so they can adjust the cylinders inside the catapult. They crew in green ready up the aircraft getting …show more content…
The pilot cannot start up their aircraft without the confirmation of the men in yellow because they give signals to the pilot whether it’s safe or not to move the aircraft. While the pilot is making its way to the catapult, he is responsible to update the men in green about his fuel tank changing. While in the catapult the pilot must remain completely stopped, so the men can check for any malfunction on the plane or the catapult. There were lots of safety equipment on board a aircraft carrier. Some like extinguishers and tow trucks. These equipments were more important when it can to catapult malfunctions. When an aircraft fails to launch the extinguishers helps put out the the burning aircraft attached to the catapult, so the tow truck can remove the plane from the runway once it is detached from the catapult. During the time when carriers were straight with wooden flight decks, they didn't have the enough space for tow trucks, so the crew members had to push bad conditioned planes off