Arresting Gear - History

History

Arresting cable systems were first invented by Hugh Robinson and were utilized by Eugene Ely on his first landing on a ship - the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania, on January 18, 1911. These early systems had cables run through pulleys and attached to dead weights, such as sandbags. More modern arresting cables were tested on HMS Courageous in June 1931.

Modern U.S. Navy aircraft carriers have the Mark 7 Mod 3 arresting gear installed, which have the capability of recovering a 50,000-pound (23,000 kg) aircraft at an engaging speed of 130 knots in a distance of 340 feet (104 m). The system is designed to absorb theoretical maximum energy of 47,500,000 foot-pounds (64.4 MJ) at maximum cable run-out.

Prior to the introduction of the angled flight deck, two systems were used (in addition to deck cables) to keep landing aircraft from running into parked aircraft further forward on the flight deck: the barrier and the barricade. If the aircraft tailhook failed to catch a wire, its landing gear would be caught by a 3–4 foot high net known as the barrier. If the aircraft caught a wire upon touchdown, the barrier could be quickly lowered to allow aircraft to taxi over it. The final safety net was the barricade, a large, 15 foot (4.6 m) high net that prevented landing aircraft from crashing into other aircraft parked on the bow. Barriers are no longer in use, although ground based arresting gear are sometimes called "barriers". Barricades are still in use aboard carriers, but they are only rigged and used in emergencies.