Wired has a brief article with video. The aircraft is unpainted but with some telemetry aiding symbols painted on the surfaces. Interesting to note that it doesn't use catapult - relies on afterburner and the ski jump. There is a wheel-arresting tab that pops up from the deck to hold the aircraft in place while power is applied. I didn't think it would be able to get enough speed, but apparently it works fine. I wonder how much headwind is required at full combat load.

 

http://www.wired.com...rier-first-jet/

 

I'm sure there are more videos/pictures out there.

 

Edit: bad spelling in the title, I know. I have fat fingers, you see...

wow

The old Varyag, once designed for other era STOL aircraft.

Interesting looking operation.

Their playn catch-up,The Lexington class CVA-42 I was on in 1976,could kick their asses.

Ha! i like the "Fred Flintstones" wheel stoppers.

Their playn catch-up,The Lexington class CVA-42 I was on in 1976,could kick their asses.

Ha! i like the "Fred Flintstones" wheel stoppers.

 

 

Hi Jim,

 

A minor correction : CVA 42 (USS Franklin D. Roosevelt) was a Midway-class carrier. USS Lexington was an Essex-class carrier. :smile:

 

I read that in 1976, CVA 42 made trials with US Marine Harriers VSTOL jets embarked besides her regular aircraft (F4s, A7s, A6s etc.). Were you onboard at the time?

 

Rgds,

 

Bruno

Their playn catch-up,The Lexington class CVA-42 I was on in 1976,could kick their asses.

Ha! i like the "Fred Flintstones" wheel stoppers.

Gotta start somewhere

Yes, that was my first duty station out of boot camp.

I went to the flight deck V1 division, as a blue shirt.

Yes they are playing catch up but give them another 10 years and they could be producing these things in high numbers and selling them to others......Everything else is made in China so they have the potential to become the worlds largest arms dealers.

Will be a very long time before they have anything comparing to a Nimitz class carrier not to mention were already building 2 of the new Gerald Ford class.

Will be a very long time before they have anything comparing to a Nimitz class carrier not to mention were already building 2 of the new Gerald Ford class.

 

True but Aircraft Carriers are now almost considered redundant in future warfare any ways. Too easy a target to take out, and too much money invested in them. China just has to keep things on the cheap and be able to produce them faster and in much higher numbers then try and match high tech gizmos. That approach is what elimination the German U-Boats in WW2. Cheap and Nasty Corvettes were produced in high numbers to go after the high tech U-Boat threat and it worked.

 

An aircraft carrier has no stealth, easily spotted from space, and all it takes is one missile attack at the outbreak of a major conflict and its gone.

 

The future of warfare is in unmanned machines and electronic warfare, not advancements of World War 2 equipment.

 

All China is doing right now is building up and arms industry and their arms trade has grown by over 4 times since 2008 while the rest of the world has only had marginal increases.

That's been said for years and years. They'll be around for a very long time. They provide a function nothing else on earth can. If they were so easily destroyed they'd have been by now. There's a reason the UK is building two new ones, and why other countries want them so badly. They're not the sitting ducks people like to make them out to be. Not invulnerable by any stretch of the imagination. However attacking an aircraft carrier isn't simply attacking one big ship. You're poking a gigantic hornets nest of a carrier group that will rain down destruction before you flip the radar off.

That's been said for years and years. They'll be around for a very long time. They provide a function nothing else on earth can. If they were so easily destroyed they'd have been by now. There's a reason the UK is building two new ones, and why other countries want them so badly. They're not the sitting ducks people like to make them out to be. Not invulnerable by any stretch of the imagination. However attacking an aircraft carrier isn't simply attacking one big ship. You're poking a gigantic hornets nest of a carrier group that will rain down destruction before you flip the radar off.

 

I agree, they have functioned very well, but we haven't seen a major outbreak of war since WW2. If there was another major outbreak of war all it would take is one small nuclear warhead to detonate at 10000 feet above that aircraft carrier group and the entire group is gone.

 

You bet that is exactly how a future major conflict would begin. those groups are among the first targets.

I don't worry about nukes. I realize some people do an that's fine. However you don't detonate a nuke against countries whose stockpiles can make parking lots of entire countries. There are crazy people out there but they're not targeting nukes against carrier groups they want to detonate them in down town Auckland.

I don't worry about nukes. I realize some people do an that's fine. However you don't detonate a nuke against countries whose stockpiles can make parking lots of entire countries. There are crazy people out there but they're not targeting nukes against carrier groups they want to detonate them in down town Auckland.

 

I am not worried about it.....I think over the next 50 years the unmanned technology is where everything is going and Humans will be the most redundant part of warfare. Humans are far too limiting (and you have to feed them) :lol: