FLIGHTS OF FANTASY INTRODUCTION Aviators and inventors flew a variety of flimsy flying machines from improvised wooden platforms temporarily mounted on naval vessels in the early twentieth century. American naval aviation has come a long way since, as evidenced by the recent successful operation of an unmanned, combat-capable, jet-propelled drone from the flight deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. In the latter half of the 20th century, a few curious experiments were conducted onboard commissioned aircraft carriers that had been designed and built by Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS). Intended to demonstrate the versatility of aircraft carriers and perhaps extend their capabilities, none of the following schemes managed to materialize into anything useful for the nation's defense. The USS MIDWAY (CVB-41) was the first in an advanced class of carriers, when delivered by NNS in 1945. At that time, MIDWAY [depicted, right, at delivery] was the largest warship in the world. CVB-41 & V-2 One of her many improvements over earlier carriers, based on battle experience during the early years of World War II was the inclusion of an armored flight deck; a first for an American carrier. After 47 years of service, which included many missions, modifications and modernizations, MIDWAY was decommissioned in 1992. After another decade of being held in reserve, she became a floating naval aviation museum in San Diego in 2004.
Two years after being commissioned, MIDWAY's armored flight deck resulted in her selection for a unique test...the launch of a liquid-fueled rocket at sea. The test was code-named Operation Sandy; the significance of which, if any, has been lost in time. A German V-2 rocket that had been captured, disassembled and sent to America for study was reassembled by the US Army and transported from their White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico to Norfolk, Virginia. Loaded onboard MIDWAY while she was docked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the V-2 rocket was positioned on the aft end of the carrier's flight deck, as depicted below. This rocket stood over 45 feet tall and weighed almost fourteen tons, when ready for flight. A dummy warhead was fitted and the launch support structure had foldaway arms. These kept the missile stable while the carrier was underway, but were folded back at the instance of launch. With the V-2, its liquid fuel, supporting equipment, data recorders and scores of technicians and observers onboard, MIDWAY left port and steamed to a position in the Atlantic several hundred miles south of Bermuda. On September 6, 1947, the first...and only...launch of a V-2 rocket from an aircraft carrier took place. 2
The test was not a complete success. Almost immediately after it lifted off, the V-2 rocket veered to one side. Fortunately, although the image below makes it appear that the rocket might hit the MIDWAY's towering island structure, the rocket's path was well astern of the carrier. When the rocket reached an altitude of 15,000 feet, it broke up. The carrier's flight deck was undamaged when the V-2's fuel was ignited. Normal air operations resumed later that same day. That experience led to additional tests, appropriately dubbed Operation Pushover. In late 1949, a simulated section of an armored flight deck was constructed at White Sands and a fully fueled V-2 rocket was set upon it; held erect with a support structure similar to the one used onboard MIDWAY. At ignition of the rocket's motor, explosive charges on two of the four legs of the supporting structure were set off, causing the V-2 to topple onto the faux deck. As anticipated, the rocket exploded and blew a hole measuring several feet across completely through the simulated armored deck. A second test was conducted weeks later, using a thicker deck section, with similar results. That ended any ideas about deploying V-2 rockets at sea onboard aircraft carriers. 3
CVA-59 & C-130 The USS FORRESTAL (CVA-59) was the nation's first super carrier. Completed in 1955 by NNS, she served for decades before being decommissioned in 1993. In 2014, after years of standby service, she was towed to Texas to be scrapped. Amongst her many experiences, none is more unusual than when a KC-130 aircraft landed and took off from her flight deck not once, but dozens of times in October of 1963. After all, a C-130 is no small aircraft or one normally considered capable of carrier operations. A typical C-130 [right] has a wing span of 132 feet, weighs 75,800 pounds empty and can carry a payload of up to 75,000 pounds. Its four turbo-prop engines can lift it from an unimproved runway in as little as 1,400 feet. This distance is longer than CVA-59, but with the carrier steaming into the wind, military aviators thought it possible for such an aircraft to take off from and land on a carrier operating in mid-ocean, thereby serving as a replenishment vehicle. So in late October of 1963 they set out to find out. The Navy borrowed a KC-130F tanker from the Marine Corps. The aircraft was modified slightly, including the addition of an anti-skid braking system. To help guide the C-130 when landing, the carrier's flight deck was painted with a dashed centerline [right]. Clearance between the aircraft's starboard wing tip and the carrier's island structure was just fifteen feet. The first landing was attempted on October 30, 1963, in rough seas five hundred miles east of Boston, Massachusetts. 4
A hand-picked naval aviation team easily landed the big bird on FORRESTAL after making several touch-and-go trial approaches. Landing into a 40 knot head wind and with the carrier steaming at over 30 thirty knots, the C-130 came to a stop just 267 feet after first touching the deck...and without the aid of any arresting gear. For comparison, the distance of 267 feet is only twice the wingspan of a C-130 and slightly more than the width of the carrier's flight deck. Cheering from spectators crowded together on the island structure changed to laughter when they spied a slogan emblazoned on the aircraft's nose...look MA, NO HOOK. Next came an attempted takeoff...without using a catapult. This was also easily achieved. With the combination of the strong head wind and the ship's speed that day, the C-130 seemed to leap off the FORRESTAL's deck shortly after it began to roll forward. Over a three day period, 29 touch-and-go landings, 21 full-stop landings and an equal number of unassisted takeoffs were achieved without incident. During one of the tests, the aircraft and its payload weighed 121,000 pounds, which is still a record for air operations on a carrier. During one of the last landing/takeoff cycles, the aircraft touched down about 150 feet from the stern of the carrier and stopped after a rollout of 270 feet. From that position it then took off, becoming airborne about two hundred feet from the ship's bow. The Navy concluded that a C-130 could carry 25,000 pounds of cargo 2,500 miles and safely land on a carrier. Even so, the concept was considered too risky, especially at night, and requiring a 'clean' flight deck would hamper a carrier's primary role. Instead the Navy developed a smaller COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) aircraft that could be more easily integrated into the mix of combat aircraft normally embarked. 5
CV-61, CV-66 & U-2 Largely kept secret during the 1960s, variations of the U-2, America's ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft were tested and then occasionally operated from the NNSbuilt carriers USS RANGER (CV-61) and USS AMERICA (CV-66). Created in the mid-1950s, the U-2 [below] has an extremely slender wing and a non-conventional undercarriage arrangement. Capable of reaching an altitude of 70,000 feet, it looked more like a glider than a military aircraft. But its range was limited to 3,000 miles, resulting in areas of interest that could not be reached to take aerial photos from land bases under United States or allies' control. To eliminate this operational restriction, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Navy joined forces to determine if U-2 aircraft could be operated from aircraft carriers. Under the code name Project Whale Tale, a U-2A was launched from a carrier operating off the California coast under the cover of darkness in August of 1963. At the controls was a Lockheed test pilot, not an naval aviator. Because of the U-2s slow liftoff speed, takeoffs were capable of being performed in as little as 300 feet, without using the carrier's catapults. No landings at sea were attempted that year, since studies had indicated that several modifications were needed in order for a U-2 to make an arrested landing on an aircraft carrier. 6
Accordingly, three U-2s were fitted with stronger landing gear and arresting hooks to facilitate landings on a carrier. They also had wing spoilers added to overcome the tendency of these aircraft from gliding over a carrier's flight deck instead of dropping down when desired to snag one of the vessel's arresting cables. Later modifications included folding wing tips, allowing a U-2 to be lowered by deck-edge elevator to a carrier's hangar bay. Aircraft so configured were designated U-2G. On March 2, 1964 the first U-2 landing was made onboard the RANGER, It was not completely successful. When the plane's arresting hook engaged, the aircraft's nose hit the flight deck and was slightly damaged. After some quick repairs, that U-2 became airborne again. Taking advantage of 'lessons learned' from that incident, the Lockheed test pilot and five CIA pilots made a number of successful takeoffs and landings over the next few days. The latter were then considered 'carrier qualified' by the Navy. Two months later, a CIA pilot flew off a U-2 off the RANGER to monitor French nuclear tests at a remote atoll in the South Pacific. In 1967 a much larger version, designated U-2R was developed. After being modified for shipboard operation, at least two of these aircraft were tested in November of 1969. The carrier AMERICA, steaming well off the Virginia coast was used to launch and recover these aircraft during a series of tests. The following photos, taken during that time period, are amongst the few known images of a U-2 operating from a carrier. 7
However, it is not believed that any U-2s ever operated from carriers again. The logistics of positioning an aircraft carrier with a U-2 embarked to perform a reconnaissance mission greatly interfered with a carrier's conventional role. Another reason was the increased range given to an advanced model of the U-2, making such complicated and expensive arrangements largely unneeded. Finally, the evolution of spy satellites and drones made the U-2 virtually obsolete. An interesting object used during Project Whale Tale is now on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. A tail hook fitted to one of the U-2G aircraft is there, an artifact from when U-2s went to sea onboard NNS-built carriers. Both the RANGER (CV-61) and AMERICA (CV-66), after decades of useful service, were decommissioned in 1993 and 1996, respectively. After years of resting in limbo at Bremerton, Washington, RANGER was sold for scrap in 2014. Long after being decommissioned, AMERICA made one final mission. In 2005, she became a life-fire test and evaluation platform. Towed far out into the Atlantic by the Navy, she was subjected to a series of underwater explosions to provide useful data in the design of future aircraft carriers. Still stubbornly afloat after absorbing and resisting massive punishment, she eventually had to be scuttled. Before any of the previously described 'Flights of Fantasy' took place, a pair of NNS-built carriers took part in one of the most audacious, ambitious, all- American aerial feats of all time. When first proposed, it, too, was considered a flight of fantasy. History has proven that it most definitely was no such thing... 8
THE DOOLITTLE RAID CV-8 & B-25 When stories of American aviation exploits during World War II are told and retold, none is more exciting or inspiring than the tale of the April 18, 1942 bombing of Japan's capital city in retaliation for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor a few months previously. A raid that was launched from a NNS-built carrier... It demonstrated to the Japanese people that they were not safe from direct attack, as their leaders had boasted. It also raised Americans' morale in those dark days of early 1942, when defeat after defeat was being suffered by America and her allies. It was the first and only air raid ever conducted by US Army Air Corps bombers operating from the deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt urged his military leaders to find a way to strike back. Unfortunately, the allies held no air bases close enough to Japan to support a raid by long range bombers. Using carrier-based aircraft seemed the only answer. But moving one of America's irreplaceable carriers close enough to the Japanese homeland for short-ranged naval aircraft to strike was dismissed as too risky an operation. The Navy could not afford to lose one of its few carriers at that stage in the war. Then, a low-ranking naval officer suggested using US Army Air Corps medium bombers. It was quickly determined that B-25 aircraft [left] might be able to fly off a carrier, although it would be impossible for them to return and land at sea. Tests at an air base indicated that such an aircraft could become airborne in a dramatically short distance...a distance that could theoretically be shortened much further by flying off a speeding carrier directly into a strong head wind. 9
At the urging of the President, the Army and Navy moved quickly to confirm the feasibility of such a possibility. On February 3, 1942, operating off the coast of Virginia, the newly-commissioned USS HORNET (CV-8) launched two B-25s from her flight deck without any difficulty, in spite of frigid weather conditions. The second B-25 only required a distance of 275 feet from the start of her take-off roll until she cleared the flight deck of the HORNET. The HORNET's construction had been fortuitously expedited before America was forced to enter World War II. The passenger liner AMERICA's launch date from Shipway #8 was moved up in order to allow the HORNET's keel to be laid there in September 1939. CV-8 is shown [right] nearing completion at a NNS outfitting pier in the summer of 1941. Last of a trio of pre-war sister ships, she was commissioned on October 20, 1941. After determining that there was room for upwards of twenty B-25 bombers on the flight deck of the HORNET, a number of these aircraft were modified for the planned mission while the carrier headed for the West Coast via the Panama Canal. The aircraft were fitted with additional fuel tanks, almost doubling their nominal range. The intent was for them to take off several hundred miles off Japan's heavily guarded coast, bomb Tokyo and other cities and then fly to allied-held air bases in China. The mastermind and leader of this effort was Jimmy Doolittle [right], an aviation pioneer and World War I US Army pilot who had returned to active duty in mid-1940. He and a large contingent of aviators and ground crew embarked in HORNET on April 1, 1942, at NAS Alameda. Sixteen B-25s were also loaded onboard the carrier that same day. Early on the morning of April 2nd, HORNET and several escort vessels lifted anchor and steamed out of San Francisco Bay. A heavy fog hid their unusual flight deck 'cargo'. Days later, 'somewhere in the Pacific' the HORNET's group merged with a similar group that included the NNS-built USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6). Unable to launch fighters for her own protection, HORNET had to depend on the ENTERPRISE to provide air cover. 10
As the American ships approached Japan's mainland before dawn on April 18, 1942, they were spotted by Japanese patrol boats still many miles from the planned launch point for the B-25s. Doolittle elected to undertake the mission anyway. He and his fellow aviators knew their chances of reaching China were slim, but no one shied away from their duty. Doolittle, piloting the first B-25 to take off, did so at 08:20 hours after accelerating down the HORNET's flight deck a distance of 467 feet. The other fifteen aircraft followed. None of the pilots, including Doolittle had ever taken off from an aircraft carrier before. The raid was a success, although lasting damage was not inflicted on the enemy. The Doolittle raid and its aftermath have been written about in many books and articles, and also dramatized in at least two movies and innumerable documentaries. One of the best and most authentic accounts, a book written by one of the aviators who participated in the raid, is entitled Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. It is readily accessible in printed form as well as in electronic format. A movie by that same name, issued in 1944 is also factually accurate and equally available. What isn't often mentioned in many publications regarding the raid is what happened to HORNET. She and the ENTERPRISE withdrew safely and reached Pearl Harbor without incident. Only a couple of months later, they joined forces with their third sister, the NNS-built USS YORKTOWN (CV-5) to forge a decisive win at the Battle of Midway. Although the YORKTOWN was lost in that epic engagement, Japan lost four first line carriers and a large percentage of its experienced naval aviators. It was the battle that avenged Pearl Harbor and turned the tide of the Pacific war, thanks to this trio of NNS-built carriers. A few months later, HORNET was sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Her entire life span, from commissioning to loss was just one year and six days... 11
CV-61 & B-25 Fast forward fifty years. In mid-april 1992, the NNS-built USS RANGER (CV-61) participated in a commemorative reenactment of the Doolittle raid. Two restored B-25 bombers were loaded onto the carrier's flight deck at the Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego. Five miles offshore, as the ship's crew and numerous invited guests watched, the two vintage aircraft took off under their own power. The two B-25s then flew over retired General Jimmy Doolittle's home at Pebble Beach, California, and dropped hundreds of red, white and blue carnations in his yard. Jimmy Doolittle, who had been presented the Congressional Medal of Honor for his stunning wartime achievement, passed away the year after that commemorative reenactment took place. POSTSCRIPT When I started to develop this article, I had every intent to just cover the 'odd-ball' V-2, the C-130 and the U-2 projects that involved, albeit ever so briefly, aircraft carriers. Particularily because those events all took place onboard carriers designed and built by Newport News Shipbuilding. But as I researched, mentions of the Doolittle raid also frequently popped up. Which in turn carried me back...way back...to my pre-teen years, when as a small boy living in Newport News during World War II, I devoured everything made public about the war time successes of NNS-built ships. At the time, I did not appreciate the difficulty or significance of that raid. Today I do, and wanted to share...both with those who may remember, and those who might not know of this example of the skill, daring and success that aviators and sailors of the Greatest Generation routinely exhibited during World War II. We owe them, well, everything... Bill Lee February 2016 12