Just how powerful ARE steam catapults?

[Einion]

Last night on some documentary they had a brief spot on the USS Ronald Reagan. One of the below-deck crew in the steam catapult section said that they were powerful enough that if you connected one to a Volkswagen it would fly 12 miles... does that sound just a bit too much to anyone else?

Einion

 

[supervike]

The power of steam is very very impressive....But a flying volkswagon for 12 miles?

Maybe if it were a bug....lol

 

[MPJ]

Maybe if it had wings? :drunk:

I bet Herbie could fly if he tried. :drunk:

 

[Evil Dave]

I do know that the torpedo tubes on our ship were pressure driven, and that we could send a basketball over a mile (If we didn\'t crank it up and have it explode coming right out of the tube. Hey, it gets boring on a six month cruise.)
We had only a tiny fraction of the power those steam catapults have and F-14/F-16\'s are a lot bigger than you think. Four big guys can pick up a Volkswagon, those same four couldn\'t budge a fighter jet.
So, my stance is that while 12 miles may be unlikely, it is possibly the truth or pretty close.

 

[Sand Rat]

Steam catapults are used to accelerate heavy objects from 0 to flight speed in a very short distance.

How heavy you ask? The largest aircraft to successfully launch from an aircraft carrier was a C130 (it also landed on the same carrier).

But throw a VW 12 miles? Methinks not - sounds like someone has taken the old line about the New Jersey class battle ships and converted it for carrier use. The New Jersey\'s 16 inch guns could lob a 2000 lb round (ie the weight of a VW Bug) 20 miles.

 

[airhead]

You\'d probably have to have the flight deck angled up at about 45 degrees. I watched them test some once with an old frame with sand bags and balloon tires. Shoot it out into the harbor and measure the angle.

 

[Sand Rat]

The real question is going to be how powerful are the electromagnetic catapults - which are being fitted on the carriers coming off the ways and the next generation carriers, the Ford Class.