Popped over to San Diego for a couple of days and a good friend of mine told me a must see is this great ship. Amazingly built in less than 2 years just after WW 2. Was the largest ship in the world for a few years. Idea of its size, the landing deck is 4 acres in size and is made of 3 1/2 thick steel. About a 1000 long. 4 propellers around 18 in diameter with a shaft of 21 diameter and over 300 in length. Over 50,000 horsepower driving each prop allowed it to attain 40 m.p.h. as a top speed. Everything was steam powered including their catapult system. Spent over 4 hours climbing around and talking to their great veterns volunteering there.
-- Edited by jmont64 on Thursday 1st of March 2018 01:09:45 AM
Thanks Jerel, that brought back good memories. My wife and I went there about ten years ago with an old friend from Laguna Beach. Never thought I'd ever see a North American Vigilante in the flesh, let alone touch one!
Imagine taking off and having to land by catapult and wires!
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
Pretty cool! That is one I would like to tour. My wife and I were in Honolulu in December and we toured the Missouri in Pearl Harbour. That was pretty cool as well. Massive pieces of engineering!
Imagine taking off and having to land by catapult and wires!
Yeah the one guy said it was like landing on a tennis court. When you landed you still hit full throttle to ensure if you had missed the cables you could make it back up again.
Steam catapult got you to 150 mph in 2 seconds. Couldnt be any loose objects in the cockpit.
The one model of plane that they used on the ship(cant remember the name) was designed to be 1800 pounds heavier for use on the ship compared to use on a conventional airstrip. Beefed it up pretty good as they got a workout launching and landing.
One guy told me a launch he made and the timing is very important as the front of the ship is always moving up and down. So you want to launch when it is facing towards the sky and not the sea. So this one time he was given the signal to go and away he went and all he could see was water. He cranked her up hard and did make it but just barely. He came back from his mission and after he landed it took him 2 hours to find the guy as he said the launcher knew hed be looking for him. The veterans on the ship are so friendly and just love sharing their experiences.
