Thursday, September 27, 2018

Birth of Naval Aviation

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23-7-28 USN: Carriers vs (AAS) LHDs & LHAs - nwyt > . skip > .

110 years ago Glenn Hammond Curtiss, at the time called by the press “the fastest man alive,” ate lunch with the officers of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania. It was a more auspicious event than it sounds, because that lunch represented what some describe as “the birth of naval aviation”.

On November 14, 1910, Curtiss demonstration pilot Eugene Ely took off from a temporary platform mounted on the forward deck of the cruiser USS Birmingham. His successful takeoff and ensuing flight to shore marked the beginning of a relationship between Curtiss and the Navy that remained significant for decades. At the end of 1910, Curtiss established a winter encampment at San Diego to teach flying to Army and Naval personnel. Here, he trained Lt. Theodore Ellyson, who became U.S. Naval Aviator #1, and three Army officers, 1st Lt. Paul W. Beck, 2nd Lt. George E. M. Kelly, and 2nd Lt. John C. Walker, Jr., in the first military aviation school. (Chikuhei Nakajima, founder of Nakajima Aircraft Company, was a 1912 graduate.) The original site of this winter encampment is now part of Naval Air Station North Island and is referred to by the Navy as "The Birthplace of Naval Aviation".

Through the course of that winter, Curtiss was able to develop a float (pontoon) design that enabled him to take off and land on water. On January 26, 1911, he flew the first seaplane from the water in the United States. Demonstrations of this advanced design were of great interest to the Navy, but more significant, as far as the Navy was concerned, was Eugene Ely successfully landing his Curtiss pusher (the same aircraft used to take off from the Birmingham) on a makeshift platform mounted on the rear deck of the battleship USS Pennsylvania. This was the first arrester-cable landing on a ship and the precursor of modern-day carrier operations. On January 28, 1911, Ellyson took off in a Curtiss “grass cutter” to become the first Naval aviator.

Curtiss custom built floats and adapted them onto a Model D so it could take off and land on water to prove the concept. On February 24, 1911, Curtiss made his first amphibious demonstration at North Island by taking off and alighting on both land and water. Back in Hammondsport, six months later in July 1911, Curtiss sold the U.S. Navy their first aircraft, the A-1 Triad. The A-1, which was primarily a seaplane, was equipped with retractable wheels, also making it the first amphibious aircraft. Curtiss trained the Navy's first pilots and built their first aircraft. For this, he is considered in the US to be "The Father of Naval Aviation". The Triad was immediately recognized as so obviously useful, it was purchased by the U.S. Navy, Russia, Japan, Germany, and Britain. Curtiss won the Collier Trophy for designing this aircraft.

Around this time, Curtiss met retired British naval officer John Cyril Porte, who was looking for a partner to produce an aircraft with him to win the Daily Mail prize for the first transatlantic crossing. In 1912, Curtiss produced the two-seat Flying Fish, a larger craft that became classified as a flying boat because the hull sat in the water; it featured an innovative notch (known as a "step") in the hull that Porte recommended for breaking clear of the water at takeoff. Curtiss correctly surmised that this configuration was more suited to building a larger long-distance craft that could operate from water, and was also more stable when operating from a choppy surface. With the backing of Rodman Wanamaker, Porte and Curtiss produced the America in 1914, a larger flying boat with two engines, for the transatlantic crossing.

41-5-27 Bismarck Sunk

The Hunt For Bismarck - Germany's Super Battleship >
Bismarck Hunting - Pride of The German Fleet - asvp > .
Der Bismarck: Doomed to Fail? - WW2 > .
Sink the Bismarck! - Demise of Pride of the Kriegsmarine - WW2 >
Inside The Cockpit - Fairey Swordfish - MAH > .

Bismarck versus Fairey Swordfish
The Bismarck was struck critically by an attack of 15 Swordfish bi-plane bombers, yet wasn't able to shoot a single one down. How was this possible, considering that the Bismarck was the most advanced Battleship of the Kriegsmarine and the Fairey Swordfish a rather archaic and fragile look plane? Was it the visibility, were the Germans just bad shots, was there a problem with the AA guns or the fire control system or other factors?

Bismarck & Denmark Strait; Hood, Prince of Wales

"Scottish pilot who helped sink the Bismarck dies"

"The air strike carried out by the biplanes from HMS Victorious and Ark Royal on 26 May 1941 was said to have been Britain's last hope of stopping the Bismarck.

Mr Moffat described flying through "a lethal storm of shells and bullets".

The air strike on the Bismarck was launched as the battleship headed to the relative safety of waters off the coast of France.

Mr Moffat and his crew took off in his Swordfish L9726 from the deck of Ark Royal and headed for the Bismarck, fighting against driving rain, low cloud and a gale.

Naval chiefs said he flew in at 50ft, nearly skimming the surface of the waves, in a hail of bullets and shells, to get the best possible angle of attack on the ship.

At 21:05 he dropped the torpedo which hit its target, jamming the rudder of Hitler's flagship.

The battleship was forced to steam in circles until the guns of the Royal Navy's home fleet arrived the next morning."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-38297099 .

41-5-(20-27) Bismarck & Denmark Strait; Hood, Prince of Wales

May 20-23, 1941
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CV1tvMYFRs .
May 24, 1941
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz8pmbytxoQ .
May 24-25, 1941
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJeI5_9c29s .
May 26-27, 1941
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV0NNZbj2QI .

The British escorting destroyers were ordered to the battle coordinates as part of the overall forces sent to intercept the German ships they were detached the evening before the battle

Axis
German battleship Bismarck
German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen

Allied
The British battleship Prince of Wales.
The British battlecruiser HMS Hood
The British heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk, Norfolk
The British destroyers HMS Achates, Antelope, Anthony, Echo, Electra, Icarus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Denmark_Strait .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_battle_of_the_battleship_Bismarck .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Bismarck .

41-5-18 Bismarck - Operation Rheinübung 41-5-27

Operation Rheinübung - First and Last Voyage of the Bismarck > .

Battleship Guns


Battleship Guns > .

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...