Posted on 02/07/2022 11:01:56 AM PST by BenLurkin
The PLAT footage on Jul. 20, 1993, shows “Lion 111”, piloted by Lt. Matthew T. Claar “Planet” with RIO Lt. Dean A. Fuller, first aircraft in the recovery cycle, dropping below the approach slope just before reaching fantail. The aircraft strikes the rear of the aircraft carrier (“ramp strike”) at 21:04:33: the rear fuselage explodes in a fireball and the forward section starts skidding along the flight deck trailing burning fuel.
Both crew ejected: the RIO survived as he was ejected into the water off the angle and recovered in a matter of a few minutes by a SAR helicopter. The pilot, Lt. Claar, who sequenced out first, ejected as the airframe was extremely nose-low, impacted on a parked aircraft on deck and died.
The F-14 has started the final approach “slightly high[er]” than the glideslpe and “slightly right” than the centerline. As the aircraft approaches the fantail, the LSO radios “power! power!” shortly followed by “wave off! wave off! wave off! wave off!”. Unfortunately the pilot fails to correct in time.
A similar incident had occurred on Jun. 23, 1951, when Commander George Chamberlain Duncan, commanding Fighter Squadron 51 (VF-51), in the cockpit of a Grumman F9F-5 Panther BuNo 125228 hit the ramp during daylight approach to USS Midway (CVB-41) operating in the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Capes. Similarly to what happened four decades later to the F-14 of Lt. Claar, Duncan’s Panther dropped below the correct approach slope, struck the ramp and broke in half exploding in flames. The forward section slid down the deck. Duncan, though burned, was quickly rescued.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaviationist.com ...
“Planet” Claar flying an F-14? Might have been more comfortable in a B-52.
It was an F-14A which had problems with compressor stalls at high angles of attack. Like when landing.
Contrast that with the Falkland Islands battle wherein the Harrier pilots flew out to a MAKESHIFT aircraft carrier built out of a cargo ship and all of them landed without EVER having landed on an aircraft carrier EVER before.
Those crashes were a long time ago. Have landing techniques/equipment improved since then?
I see what you did there
The worst risk most "aviation experts" online face is carpal tunnel syndrome.
However, it should be the last, thanks to the new JPALS system that should be coming on line.
Navy Buys Tech that Can Land F-35s on Carriers with Pinpoint Accuracy21 Jun 2019
Military.com | By Hope Hodge SeckWhen the Navy's F-35C Joint Strike Fighter embarks on its first carrier deployment in 2021, it's expected to take with it a pinpoint-accurate landing system that purports to make the terror of night approaches and high sea-state traps all but a thing of the past.
Raytheon announced this week that the Navy awarded a $234.6 million contract for a low-rate initial production of 23 of its Joint Precision Approach and Landing Systems, or JPALS -- enough to outfit every carrier and L-class amphibious assault ship with the technology. The contract also will include retrofitting three earlier systems that had been installed, a Raytheon executive said.
Delivering to the Navy will start late next year, and installation will begin shortly thereafter, retired Navy Rear Adm. C.J. Jaynes, Raytheon's JPALS technical executive, told Military.com this week. The work is expected to be completed by August 2023, according to a published contract announcement.
The system, which uses shipboard-relative GPS to guide planes in for landings and communicates with the aircraft from the deck of the carrier up to 200 nautical miles out, is accurate within 20 centimeters, or about 8 inches, Jaynes said.
"It hits the third wire every time," she said. "It's [reliable in] all-weather and all sea states, including Sea State 5 (waves of roughly 8 to 12 feet)."
For Navy pilots, catching the third of four wires on tailhook landings (or the second of three wires) has historically been a game of skill and precision that becomes orders of magnitude more difficult in the dark or in low-visibility weather conditions.
Marine Corps F-35B pilots, who use the aircraft's vertical-landing configuration to put it down on the smaller flight decks of amphibious ships, face the same problems. And those issues may actually be exacerbated by a number of F-35-specific issues pending resolution.
The custom-made, $400,000-per-unit helmet that F-35 pilots wear -- a piece of technology that allows them to "see through" the plane via a display for better situational awareness -- features symbology that emits a green glow, interfering with pilots' vision in low-light conditions. A video that emerged in 2017 showed an F-35 pilot landing "in a fog" on the amphibious assault ship America at night, his vision obscured by the helmet display. A recent Defense News report highlighted another issue with the helmet display at night that obscures the horizon.
JPALS, which has already deployed in an early-development version with F-35Bs aboard the amphibious assault ships Wasp and Essex, would decrease reliance on visibility for accurate landings. Another F-35C-installed tool, Delta Flight Path, will keep aircraft on a steady glide slope for carrier landings, reducing inputs and corrections required from pilots.
Early reports from the JPALS deployments with the Marines have been extremely positive, Jaynes said.
"The pilots absolutely love it. It's been 100 percent accuracy, always available, they haven't had any issues at all," she said. "We know they have not had to abort any missions due to weather or due to sea state."
Raytheon is now pitching an expeditionary version of JPALS, easily transportable and designed to guide aircraft to safe landings on bare airfields. The whole system can fit in five transit cases, be transported by C-130 Hercules, and be assembled within 90 minutes, Raytheon says.
The Navy's future tanker drone, the MQ-25 Stingray, will also be JPALS-equipped; Jaynes said Raytheon is in talks with the service now about selling expeditionary JPALS for the MQ-25 program for shore-based tanker landings at locations like Norfolk, Virginia, or Point Mugu, California.
Meanwhile, she said, the Marine Corps is considering buying a single expeditionary JPALS system for testing in order to develop a concept of operations to employ it.
But "the closest customer outside of MQ-25 is actually the U.S. Air Force," Jaynes said.
"They'd be able to move their aircraft possibly every 24 to 48 hours and do island-hopping in the Pacific. We're going over to [United States Air Forces in Europe -- Air Forces Africa] in July to talk with them about the system," she said.
On a Med cruise aboard Forrestal, our sister F-4B squadron managed THREE Round Down (flight deck edge of ramp) strikes with their tail hooks over a very short time interal.
Carrier landings are a game of inches at speeds of about 150 MPH...in 3-D.
This needs to be clarified...
Do you mean ramp strikes happen? Or do you mean there have been other F-35 ramp strikes?
Well they splashed a F-35 a few days ago.
I mean the first time a Navy aircraft struck the ramp.
Great! More expensive crap to be placed in a multimillion dollar rollercoaster. Just send those clowns to an amusement park for the day and be done with it.
Very true then. Since about the birth of naval aviation.
Yes, Harriers can land vertically
Thanks for posting that.
“Great! More expensive crap to be placed in a multimillion dollar rollercoaster. Just send those clowns to an amusement park for the day and be done with it”.
That is really a very stupid thing to say.
“F” you pal. Look in the mirror to find a clown.
Was this the footage used to show Harmon Rabb’s crash in the opening monologue of JAG?
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