The British aircraft carrier is so poor that even a crane is required to board it.
Facing the setting sun of national strength, the shrinkage of the British Royal Navy has continued and never stopped. But they will always try their best to maintain the image and combat effectiveness of the "big empire". They will build aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft that are "non-mainstream". If necessary, they will also build a crane to "pull the aircraft to help fly". Sky Hook system.
In the 1982 Falklands War, the expeditionary Royal Navy almost "exhausted all its strength", and even "civilian ships" had to stay ahead. Fortunately, the British opponents were simple-minded enough, and the Royal Navy managed to maintain the afterglow of the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets." Also in the same year, in order to enhance surface aviation power, the British proposed an idea to "pull out aircraft to assist flight" - Sky Hook.
The so-called Sky Hook is a system that uses a crane to help the Harrier take off. This idea was invented by Heinz Erwin Frick of the British Aerospace Corporation, and he applied for a related patent at the British National Patent Office (Patent No. 2104014). Since he himself had served as a test pilot for the Harrier fighter jet, he knew the fighter jet well and spoke highly of it, so he felt that this "homegrown method" would work.
According to Frick's idea: install special cranes and hanging claws on medium-sized warships such as Sheffield-class destroyers. The hanging claw has functions such as positioning recognition, capture, locking, and release, and the back of the Harrier fighter also needs to be slightly modified so that it can be picked up.
In this way, the crane grabs the fighter plane to a certain height during takeoff, and then when the fighter's aerodynamic engine reaches sufficient thrust, the hook is released and takeoff can be achieved.
When recycling, perform the above steps in reverse. The fighter jet flies under the boom and hovers. The boom and claws of the crane system use infrared devices to identify, locate, capture and lock.
Then the fighter plane can be taken back to the hangar by a crane. As a result, even the landing gear of the Harrier fighter is omitted. On the premise of further reducing weight, the "stingy" range may be improved.
According to estimates by Frick and the British Aerospace Group, the "Skyhook" system is mainly aimed at the modification of existing ships. The project development cost is only about US$12 million, which is less expensive than building a new ship. Much cheaper. In addition, since fighters using the "Skyhook" system have no special requirements for decks and runways, the idea of ??"large submarine-based aircraft" was also born.
It can not only save money, but also improve combat effectiveness. The Royal Navy is naturally happy to see the results. Therefore, "Sky Hook" not only has a good prospect, but also has a good "money path". But the plan... in the end, everyone knew that it was "on hold". It’s not that the British Parliament is as stingy as the US Congress, it’s simply that the British Aerospace Group “eats alone”, resulting in a slow development process, and the project is classified as confidential and not made public. As a result, many countries with similar needs are unable to participate and share technology and capital costs.
In this design, the hangar is designed with a side flip-down hatch, which can be used as a deck without affecting the carrying of anti-submarine helicopters
The final result is that when When the British Ministry of Defense lost interest and refused to invest. British Aerospace Group is neither willing to "pay for its own money" for research and development, nor is it willing to go out and find "foreign aid" for investment. As a result, the Royal Navy's "pulling aircraft to help fly" thing was shelved and reduced to a mere idea. We can only find some traces of the "Skyhook" in the boom-type retractable and retractable systems of some carrier-based drones. This can be regarded as an alternative tribute to the Cold War imagination.