Word: catapults
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...story about a war-weary ship and crew. The Philippine Sea was the first carrier ordered from the U.S. to Korean waters, and the first one to reach Hawaii after the armistice. Her planes had flown 7,243 combat sorties; she claims more landings and more catapult shots than any other carrier off Korea. But on the huge flight deck, the newsmen found the ship's band dressed in colorful kimonos and coolie hats, giving out with the jazzy wails of China Night. Far from war-weary, the Philippine Sea turned out to be a floating fraternity house...
During the siege of St. Marcel in the year 1212, says Frank Yerby in The Saracen Blade, a dead horse was mounted on a trenchbut. This instrument, a huge catapult, flung the horse clear over the city's parapets and dropped it in the public cistern...
When aircraft carriers of the U.S. Navy make ready to launch their planes, they turn into the wind and steam at high speed. But even with a stiff breeze whipping across the flight deck, attack bombers and jet fighters often need a large and cumbersome catapult to boost them up to flying speed. And on a hot, calm day, the thrust of this giant slingshot is barely enough to toss them aloft...
This week H.M.S. Perseus, light (12,265 tons) carrier of the Royal Navy, was en route to Philadelphia, prepared to demonstrate a new catapult designed to handle hefty modern aircraft. The new catapult has been tested for more than a year. Weights, dummies, pilotless planes and finally regular carrier craft have been flung into the air at speeds up to 135 knots-fast enough for flight even when the ship is riding at anchor...
Because the powerful new catapult should often make it unnecessary for a ship to steam into the wind for long periods to get its planes away, the British Admiralty expects it to revolutionize naval air tactics. If it works as well with heavy U.S. attack bombers and torpedo planes as it has in tests with lighter planes of the Fleet Air Arm, it will be installed as standard equipment in carriers of the British, Australian and Canadian navies, may also be adopted...