FLOATING AERODROME.

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 27, 2 February 1937, Page 9

FLOATING AERODROME.

DECK-LANDING PRACTICE NORTH SEA EXERCISES. I ! Recent naval e’xercises in the North Sea provided excellent opportunity for deck landing practice for R.A.F. trainees. For nearly twelve hours one day the aircraft carrier Furious eteame’d steadily into wind, while young officers of the Fleet Air Arm made landings on her ample flying deck. Wind aii£l visibility conditions were good, but a slight swell caused the ship to pitch a little, making landings fairly difficult. In these circumstances the landings, whether by expert instructors or comparative novioes, were most efficiently executed, proving tho high standard of the preliminary training given to Fleet Air Arm pilots at a shore aerodrome on which is marked out the shape of & flying deck. Aotually, the risk of overrunning the deok in landing is small; aircraft carriers are fitted with arrester gear—a. series of wires stretched across the deck which engage with a hook attaohed to th£ aeroplane beneath the fuselage and bring thef oraft to a standstill very rapidly. Bombhig Attacks. Later in the day five experienced pilots made a demonstration attack on the oarrler with torpedo bombers. There is still room for argument over the efficacy of torpedoplane attack on warships, states a writer, in spite of the declared conviction of naval gunners that the torpedo-bomber, which must approach its target in a straight line over a considerable distance, is an e'asy prey for anti-air-craft fire. On the other hand, a large proportion of hits is secured with torpedoes launched from aircraft, and the element of surprise must not be overlooked. A torpedoplane attack might take place at the height of a naval engagement, when the warship crews would have other pre-occupations, or the aeroplanes might emerge suddenly from the shetler of clouds or smoke-screen.