The new aircraft launch system is more reliable and required less maintenance than the traditional steam-driven launchers. It has smoother acceleration, which shows that it would make the process of hurling planes into the sky a less arduous task. The muscle of the system can even launch larger and heavier aircraft, and shoot them down the runway at up to 180 knots.
The US Navy flaunted this Herculean catapult in front of a large crowd and cameras. The rather dramatic footage shows the crew hook up large truck-like sledges to the launcher and send them flying down the deck. Since they were merely rectangular objects with no care for aerodynamics, they didn’t exactly take flight like jets and didn’t plummet the exact 180 knots either.
Check out the technology in action below!
