Aircraft Carrier Testing Its Electromagnetic Catapult Skips Trucks Like Rocks

The world has advanced rapidly, but the pace has almost been too fast for large projects to keep up. When you're talking about a $13 billion nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that's been under construction since 2005, you have to wonder if some of that ship will be obsolete before it's fully complete. Mind you, when you're talking about such a massive investment intended to go into some hairy situations, we probably won't know what exactly is on board. However, we're lucky enough to see its new electromagnetic launching system in action, and it doesn't look like it will be obsolete for a long, long time.

The USS Gerald Ford heralds a new era for the U.S. Navy and contains a host of state-of-the-art features – among them, a new electromagnetic catapult system.

It's said to be more reliable and easier to maintain than the old steam-driven launchers, with smoother acceleration, which should put less stress on the planes being hurled into the sky. Better, it can launch larger and heavier aircraft, and propels them down the runway at up to 180 knots.

In some dramatic footage, the Navy's tests of this new launch system show its impressive power.

With a crowd gathered on deck to watch, crew hook truck-shaped sledges up to the launcher and send them racing down the deck. Obviously they don't take flight like the jets on board will, but they don't exactly plummet, either.

At 180 knots, even a brick on wheels will fly a surprising distance – and, apparently, it will skip on the water, too.

Check out this incredible technology in action below!

Here's hoping the Navy doesn't need those sledges back.

Advertisement