Thank you - TWK - accurate. Takeoff of the B-25's was also enabled by the carriers course at max speed into a head wind - providing 'relative airspeed" and lift for takeoff.
The short takeoffs were practiced at Eglin Field in Valparaiso, Florida.
https://b-25history.org/doolittle/training.htm
James Doolittle won the Medal of Honor for his work on developing and leading the raid on Tokyo! Originally Posted by oeb11
even today current carrier tactics call for turning into the wind for launch operations and this is with catapults and jet engines at full power on takeoff.
i've seen this in action on the USS America. you can't be on the flight deck during operations unless you are part of the air group but you can go up to the top of the tower and watch. it's an awesome sight.
i have seen this not just in air ops for qualifications but for real. real air ops where the planes were fully loaded for combat. i found myself in the Mediterranean Sea after the Beirut barracks bombing. no more practice. no more drills. real full combat status for 45 days. 12 hours duty shifts. 24 hour a day flight ops. we never did a strike but if Ronnie had given the word we would have.
while briefly on the USS Tarawa which is a amphibious assault ship meaning no cats and they use Harrier vstol jets. this was a family day cruise where the Tarawa went out for a day cruise with the ship loaded up with dependents and they did a flight ops demonstration. the Navy does not half ass anything, ever. so it was done with full ops including a standby rescue chopper as always.
they had a harrier jet do a flyby for the dependents. the jet came along side and matched speed with the Tarawa at about 25 knots and about 200 yards off the starboard side of the ship. the jet was about 12 stories up from the sea and about two stories above the flight deck.
i was on top of the tower watching this (in the safe zones so you wouldn't get yer nuts fried by the radar) and suddenly the jet had a catastrophic engine failure and dropped like a rock into the ocean off San Diego.i immediately looked over to the flight deck and saw the flight deck officer signal the rescue chopper with "throttle up" and that chopper literally jumped off the fight deck straight up. the rescue chopper is always at idle during flight ops meaning the engine was powered on and the blades were rotating slowly. the pilot went full throttle and that chopper shot off the deck like a rocket and they had a rescue diver in the water in 2 minutes flat.
too late. the harrier pilot died instantly from the sudden drop with a basal skull fracture. he was dead the moment he hit the water. same thing happened to Dale Earnhardt when he hit the wall at Daytona at 200 mph,
