Intrepid
Major
Nobody is planning to put a QE class style rectangular ski jump on 001A.I believe the discussion was about the possibility of 001A using a QE class style rectangular ski jump ...
Nobody is planning to put a QE class style rectangular ski jump on 001A.I believe the discussion was about the possibility of 001A using a QE class style rectangular ski jump ...
we know .. but the matter of QE's rectangular bow plan and whether it would work on 001A was raised.Nobody is planning to put a QE class style rectangular ski jump on 001A.
Nobody is planning to put a QE class style rectangular ski jump on 001A.
A wild hypothesis:
Given the recent evidence of J15 being actually tested to take off using catapult, which may have already happened - how likely is it that PLAN constructed these test catapults and will test them further for another 4 or so years, until cv 002 is ready for preliminary tests of its own?
Or is there a possibility that we're seeing j15 being tested from these catapults because they are being prepped for earlier service from a ship? Which, of course, can mean only service on 001a. While unlikely, it may be possible to put a catapult on the landing deck. Perhaps even that mystery bit on the deck, between the first and second arresting wire, may be an indication for it. Sadly, fourth wire seems to be in the way, where catapult would already have to begin. Unless PLAN somehow realized rearanging the wires or removing one wire gives similar performance. (maybe with better landing guidance fourth wire isn't needed?)
I too think it's more likely 001a won't have cats.
That being said, Soviets did start building a carrier which had exactly that - ski jump and a shoulder catapult (probably for AEW planes). So there is a precedent for it.
But what i find peculiar, if catapult combatible j15 is already flying - why does it need 4 or more years to test it before planes can even try to practice off the real ship?
As far as i know, these new ground based catapults are not some demonstrators. We had demonstrators for developing catapult tech elswere prior to this. These are serial standard cats that need little further development and they're here to help pilots train and to test actual j15.
If the above is correct, why does one need 4 years of such training before getting a chance to train further from a ship? As far as i can find, USN cadets don't train even remotely that long before going off to fly from real carriers.