One hundred years ago today, Eugene Ely made history by executing the first ever shipboard arrested landing:
Ely’s flight, which came only seven years and one month after the Wright Brothers flew their first plane, was in every way historic. Though Ely had flown a plane from a Navy ship off Hampton Roads, Va., in 1910, no one had ever landed aboard a ship.
Ely, a self-taught pilot who represented the Curtiss Airplane Co. was just the man for the job. “If I did not believe I could do it without injury to myself or my machine, I would not attempt it,” he said.
The Curtiss firm had a primitive “flight deck” 130 feet long and 32 feet wide built on the stern of the Pennsylvania at Mare Island. Canvas screens were rigged on each side to catch the plane if it missed the deck. The major problem was how to stop the airplane, which would land at a speed of 50 or 60 mph.
The solution was to rig up 21 ropes across the deck, with a 50-pound sandbag attached to each end. The ropes were designed to catch a hook rigged under the plane and stop it — a primitive version of the tail hook system used on aircraft carriers today.
The Pennsylvania was anchored 300 yards off San Francisco’s Folsom Street wharf, surrounded by small boats. The event was heavily advertised — it was part of a big air show in San Bruno — and a crowd of perhaps 75,000, “a vast multitude” the papers said, was on hand aboard boats and along the bay shoreline to see Ely’s flight.
In doing so, Ely redefined cool forever, emptied jails and orphanages, filled countless public houses, seriously damaged the concept of chastity, set the stage for ten thousand broken hearts and forever dashed the self-regard of countless Air Force pilots who – ever after – would have to content themselves with second best.
In response the Air Force turned to crud.
Two snorts…and a beer.
Never has the ethos of ladies’ night at the NAS O’Club been better stated.
Who is that I hear singing a baritone duet (+40 more for the chorus) of “You’ve lost that loving feeling”?
Tom? Is that you, you old cradle robber?
Making movies and legends (in their own minds) to this day.
Ely was a hell of a pilot…historic day.
Not to mention, Grandpa, setting the bar for Naval Aviators for years to come!
I wonder why they didn’t have the Pennsylvania under way? When was the first under way recovery accomplished?
Lex can tell you that being underway is not necessarily…necessary. Perhaps he’ll relate the Diego Garcia “flanchor” story someday.
It has often occurred to me that the Navy’s expansion of it’s fleet air arm, and the subsequent launch of USS Ranger in the same year that Prohibition was repealed are of such obvious a connection that no serious consideration of coincidence should be entertained.
Both the aircraft and those associated with it require high-octane fuel for life and proper operation.
“Whereupon the Spirit of the Lord filleth my earcups upon arrestment, and He was heard to say: “Lights out on deck!” ”
–Here endeth the lesson.
Com, to be technically correct, we sweet, understanding, forgiving Air Bosses would just say “lights on deck.”
Your uber-pithy characterization of those who came after Ely made me fall of the seat with laughter at just the right time
Thanks for the “yuks” and this blast from the past.
++++++1. I’m still laughing.
So well crafted that I’m sure there will be a few in blue that swell with pride after reading the compliment! It was a beer-sinus irrigation event…
Very good, and congrats, of course Lex….but as one of the aforementioned USAF guys, I do have to point out…
1. In Crud we DO reign supreme.
2. We didn’t have to bunk with 5000 other guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch5z3DMC3RA
1. re: crud – I guess ya gotta find your fitrep bullets where you can…
2. re: the video – in the immortal words of Dirty Harry, “a man’s gotta know his limitations.” In the immortal words of Richard Bach, “argue for your limitations, and they’re yours.” If you can’t land on a carrier, don’t.
Crud, for those who can’t figure out how to place dice?
*play dice
Consistant winners regard your revision as a distinction without a difference.
+10 on the “5,000 other guys.” Actually, it’s plus-whatever-you-think-it’s-worth, and it was worth at LEAST ten to me. YMMV.
Air Force Baby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XFmpo_QATA
LOL!
It’s a Trap!! (Well, it WAS the favorite saying of a certain Admiral
)
And barely two months after he flew the first plane *off* a ship (USS BIRMINGHAM near Old Point Comfort in Norfolk, VA). Ely sure got around!
You gots crossposted! (Sorta.)
http://blog.usni.org/2011/01/18/trap/
Quite fitting that we just had a beer at one of the only surviving real O-clubs in the country, the I-bar, while TAD at NASNI.
Excellent post!
I’m hoping to go to Oshkosh this year….hear the Navy warbirds will be out in force!
Was it an OK 7-Wire?