USN Ships Catapults

Either net or slede dragged along side of ship

hook on bottom of main float snagged net or slede while still underway,

(but at reduced speed) aircraft hoisted aboard by ships crane/gantry

see attached photo link

http://navsource.org/archives/01/057/013802b.jpg

All well and good. How did the USN retrieve it's little floaters, eh? Treaty Cruiser modelers know.

This link has some details for you

http://navsource.org/archives/01/060/016080.jpg

And in the 1st Quarter Newsletter 2009 is a set of drawings by Greg Reynolds

http://www.sumter-shawafb-ipms.org/

In the past I have found pix of them doing maintenance on the cat showing the mechanism with the deck plates removed on the US Navy site, just use the search feature on the right of the page.

Hi mlbraun,

I have the plans from The Floating Drydock that EdGrune mentioned.  They are pretty good, but don't show much of the internal structure or mechanism.

I sent you an email including my picture references.  I hope they help.

I'd like to see any progress on your catapult!

m@

The Floating Drydock offers plans for USN catapults.  http://floatingdrydock.com/

White Ensign Models offers a photo-etched & resin catapult in 1:72 scale.  They have both USN & German

Lone Star Models has (or had don't know if it is still in production) an all-resin USN catapult