Catapulting Seaplanes from U-Boats 



Solving the difficult problem of launch- 

 ing a flying machine over rough water 



A little elevated railway is built on the after-deck of the ship. On the track runs a little car 

 which carries the seaplane, projecting it into the air when the end of the track is reached 



10 N G before the engagements of the 

 German and British fleets in the 

 North Sea focused the eyes of the 

 world upon the possibilities of scouting in 

 the air, the officers of our Navy had foreseen 

 the part that the flying machine would play 

 in battle. But they were prevented from 

 carrying their vision into reality by the 

 difficulties of launching a seaplane. When 

 the water is rough a flying boat is so bat- 

 tered about by the waves that it is unable 

 to make that preliminary run without 

 which it cannot fly. In the earliest experi- 

 ments a platform was built over the decks 

 of one of our warships, and a flying ma- 

 chine actually succeeded not only in launch- 

 ing itself from that platform, but even in 

 alighting upon it. But, a platform is ob- 

 viously an encumbrance. When a ship is 

 to be cleared for action it is in the way. 



For some years Capt. Washington I. 

 Chambers of our Navy has been working on 

 this launching problem. He has at last de- 

 vised an ingenious catapult with which 

 some of our ships are provided and which 

 seems to meet the technical requirements of 

 those who must fight on the seas. 



Capt. Chambers' launching device is in 

 reality a little elevated railway built on the 

 after-deck. On the track runs a little car 



which carries the seaplane. The car shoots 

 forward, carrying with it the seaplane. When 

 the end of the track is reached, the seaplane 

 is projected into the air, its motor having 

 been started before the run. The car re- 

 turns automatically to the starting position 

 after having struck a buffer. 



What propels the car ? Not the screw of 

 the flying machine, as might be supposed at 

 first blush, but a simple piece of machinery 

 consisting of cable, tackle, and a com- 

 pressed-air cylinder. One end of the wire 

 cable is attached to the cox and the other to 

 the piston of the cylinder. The tackle in 

 between serves to magnify to 60 feet the 

 push of the piston, which is about 4^ feet. 

 The function of the tackle is not unlike that 

 performed by the pulleys that hoist a safe 

 from the sidewalk to a fourth or fifth story 

 window. By the time the seaplane has 

 reached the end of the track, it will have a 

 speed of at least forty miles an hour, which, 

 in normal conditions, keeps it aloft if the 

 propellers are in motion. Of course, the 

 seaplane must be automatically unlatched 

 from the car. 



The elevated structure upon which the 

 track is carried, is so designed that it can be 

 removed very quickly when the ship is to be 

 cleared for action. 



