During sea trials the Ford used EMALS heavily, as would be the case in combat and training operations and found EMALS less reliable than the older steam catapult, more labor intensive to operate, put more stress on launched aircraft than expected and due to a basic design flaw if one EMALS catapult becomes inoperable, the other three catapults could not be used in the meantime as was the case with steam catapults. [More]NORDEN...!!!
[Via Florida Guy]
1 comment:
Linear induction and linear synchronous motors have been used on roller coasters for quite some time now, and quite reliably. Granted, roller coaster trains aren't airplanes, but the technology is there.
Given this is new technology for launching aircraft, I'd expect they would have built a test platform where these problems would have been discovered before mounting it on an aircraft carrier. Though power requirements would have been huge.
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