EMALS for my friends...no more steam catapults for CVN-78

[Flugelman]

In the media this is how it works;

General aviation prop planes are all Piper Cubs.

Any non airline jet is a Lear Jet.

Most crashes are the result of the engine stalling.

Or when the helo starts reducing power 20 feet off the ground on the approach.

 

[Ace_Austin]

From an engineering standpoint, I could see the shot from these new cats being a better ride. The use of electricity will allow a much finer control of the forces being applied to the shuttle. Instead of the acceleration being front loaded when the steam valves open, it can be spread out along the whole stroke.

 

[phrogdriver]

What really puts the credibility of the article into question is the horrible schematic of how the catapult works. Not even close.

Where's the "ACME" label and the hamster on a wheel?

 

[milky-f18]

Cedar Point has a roller coaster (i'm sure it's not the only one) that uses similar technology to what the Navy plans to use, I believe. It is smoother than steam, but it has been the closest thing outside of a real cat shot that I have felt. Was kind of cool to be able to put my wife on the ride and let her see what it felt like. I think that ride goes from zero to about 120 in about the same length as a cat stroke.

 

[HeyJoe]

Cedar Point has a roller coaster (i'm sure it's not the only one) that uses similar technology to what the Navy plans to use, I believe. It is smoother than steam, but it has been the closest thing outside of a real cat shot that I have felt. Was kind of cool to be able to put my wife on the ride and let her see what it felt like. I think that ride goes from zero to about 120 in about the same length as a cat stroke.

120mph on 4 seconds...that's slow! But if you can get that fast in length of cat track, a few seconds more likely make for a smoother ride.

So in a few decades, we'll have all the youngsters here in Old Salt category saying "Back in the day, when men were men, and catapults were powered by steam...now that was a ride! You grasshoppers have it easy with electricity!"

 

[MattWSU]

I rode that coaster four or five years ago. That thing was a beast and, at the time, was the fastest and tallest in the world. I think a Georgia coaster recently stole the title from it.

 

[Beans]

There's a coaster at California Adventure that's like that too ("California Screamin'" I think...) probably not as intense, seeing as it's Disney.

The Bose automobile suspension system works in a similar way. They claim to have had the linear motor technology for over 25 years, but they just needed the processor power to catch up for the control system.