Prowler FRS?

[jmcquate]

Gents,

One respected member of this forum, with old good Phantom-era experience, have told me that EA-6B's tailhook tended to skip the wires, bouncing from the deck notably often. The question is: why so? Weak hydraulic device that should have pressed it to the deck? That hook was not a solid thing, being divided in two parts by pivot bolt. Maybe this was the reason?

Is the Авиация Военно-морского флота России having hook-skip issues?

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

Is the Авиация Военно-морского флота России having hook-skip issues?

Of course it has. When Su-33 was T-10 evaluator, about 1987, there have been even thought to make the hook non-retractable, then our designers got back to French Clemenceau design (those ships have been studied at the end of 1960s when the France left the NATO and its DoD allowed Soviets naval architects to visit Foch and see all hangar-deck features for two weeks) and applied additional inverted curved metal bands to make the wires up, and nose gear of Su-33 became twin-wheeled and larger. I'm not aero engineer but have been told that there isn't any hydraulic or pneumatic device on Su-33 to press the downed hook to deck, there is a backward spring instead. The bolters due to skipping hook are not unheard of, meanwhile, especially since O-3 pilots were allowed to land on a carrier (before 1998 O-4s and up were allowed only, with more than 600 hours in Su-27 or its derivatives' cockpit). All Russian carrier-borne airplanes have the solid hook, with no pivot point, though.

But Prowler's hook, forced the V-2 people to "TP" (for toilet paper) the wires for landing, is something beyond our experience ;-)

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

Most guys who I knew that flew them disagreed.

Sometimes it is almost impossible to make supplier to change its mind, in the military. Our Tu-Bs (Badgers, Bears, Backfires) were designed when Anatoliy Tupolev himself was alive, and when then-new interceptor Tu-128, clearly more resembling bomber rather than fighter, was evaluating by Air Force commission board, one of Colonels said to Tupolev directly that pilot need the small window in the floor to see the strip, as the vision from cockpit was very poor. The answer of Tupolev was simple: "Show me your pilot with at least one fucking eye grown on his ass, and I'll do what you're asking. Otherwise, you'll fly on what we'll make for you and not what you want to fly".

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

Oh, blame on me. He was Andrew. Andrew Tupolev. The most respected airplane designer of USSR and an avid master of harsh Russian language... Salty admirals have becoming shy when Tupolev have spoken on Military Tech Board among military, industry and commie leaders.