Re: The President and the Arrestor wire

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 08:13 AM 5/2/2003, Cooper Fox wrote:
>This is slightly off topic, but....  I noticed that
>when the news networks(and AP wire feeds) did stories
>about President Bush's landing on the Abe Lincoln they
>made a HUGE deal about the plane having the use the
>arrestor wires to stop.  Why?  As far as I know every
>jet landing on a carrier(with the exception of VTOLs
>like Harrier)uses an arrestor wire to bring it to a
>stop.  I can understand that him flying in a small jet
>and doing a carrier landing, but why is the issue with
>the wire such a big deal?

I think it's just because it was the President and he probably wasn't used 
to how hard you get slammed around making a carrier landing.  So it's less 
about the fact that they had to use the arrestor cable, and more about how 
while the Navy takes it for granted how rough those landings are, most of 
the public doesn't realize what it entails.

Growing up in a Navy town...the Herald has an article on it that sums it up 
similar to what I've been told by the handful of Navy pilots I know; taking 
a car at 100MPH and stopping it in 1.5 seconds.  I imagine it's not 
dissimilar to when I car I was riding in (back in high school) slammed into 
a oak tree at 55MPH...my ribcage hurt like hell for days afterward from the 
seatbelt.   One of the pilots mentioned that it's not unheard-of for arms, 
legs, collarbones, etc to be broken in carrier landings.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/war/plan05022003.htm

I imagine carrier takeoffs are similarly exciting...you go from zero to at 
least 200MPH in under 5 seconds...and in a few cases, those jets don't stop 
accelerating until they hit Mach 2 (about 1200MPH)...yowsa!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA