Aviation Videos.

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
This picture says that it's the last fixed-wing launch from it - on November 27th, 1978.

27-nov-1978-892-nas-phantom-xt870012-last-fixed-wing-catapult-launch-from-hms-ark-royal-fltlt-murdo-macleod-raf.jpg


The larger print area shows that there was some sort of structure, to the left of the catapult line, that could have been available to support the camera/photographer.
You'd have to be barking mad to stand that close as it blasts post. Surely the camera would have had to be operated remotely.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
You'd have to be barking mad to stand that close as it blasts post. Surely the camera would have had to be operated remotely.
One would hope so, but messing about on aircraft carriers in normal situations is not a reliable indicator of sanity.

A chap I worked with had been an apprentice at the Dowty (aircraft) propeller factory. They wanted to move a pressure sensor around in front of a prop running at full speed - it was all a bit of a rush and they had no time to arrange a proper system. They wanted, also, the least disruption to the airflow, so they tied the smallest person (him) to a sturdy post and told him where they wanted to probe to be moved to...


Notable in the shot of that Phantom is the extreme angle of the flaps, more airbrake than flap - you'll only get away with that in a take-off situation with stacks of power, from the engines and the catapult.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
This picture suggests a significant area of decking alongside the catapult. Still not sure how safe it would be. . Don't want to ask father-in-law about it as it would set him off about his missing photo albums.
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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
There is this picture of it in 1978 in Malta - possibly indicating a further structure to the starboard side on the catapult snout.

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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Mmm, just seen a very strange thing. A Lufthansa 747, flying straight across the Sun, leaving a clear trail.

But, when it came back out of the glare, having passed the Sun, there was a 'dark trail', but emanating from the front of the plane!

After a few moments, I realised that this was the shadow of the real trail on the haze below the plane, but it looked really weird for a few seconds...

By the time I could take this it had faded a lot and wasn't quite on line, but, initially, it looked like a fake image that I was looking at, in real life.

DSC_0693.JPG
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.

With the right atmospheric conditions, you can get a similar effect from visible propeller tip vortices.


Starts at about 5:00 in.

As much as you'll see often wingtip vortices, these are a rather more rarely observed phenomenon, and you really need the dark background to see them easily - once viewed against the sky, they are much less obvious. I've never seen them in real life.
 
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