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Originally a public domain film from the US Navy, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arresting_gear
Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
An arresting gear, or arrestor gear, is a mechanical system used to rapidly decelerate an aircraft as it lands. Arresting gear on aircraft carriers is an essential component of naval aviation, and it is most commonly used on CATOBAR and STOBAR aircraft carriers. Similar systems are also found at land-based airfields for expeditionary or emergency use. Typical systems consist of several steel wire ropes laid across the aircraft landing area, designed to be caught by an aircraft's tailhook. During a normal arrestment, the tailhook engages the wire and the aircraft's kinetic energy is transferred to hydraulic damping systems attached below the carrier deck. There are other related systems which use nets to catch aircraft wings or landing gear. These barricade and barrier systems are only used for emergency arrestments for aircraft without operable tailhooks...
Arresting cable systems were invented by Hugh Robinson and were utilized by Eugene Ely on his first landing on a ship—the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania, on 18 January 1911. These early systems had cables run through pulleys and attached to dead weights, such as sandbags. More modern arresting cables were tested on HMS Courageous in June 1931, designed by Commander C. C. Mitchell.
Modern U.S. Navy aircraft carriers have the Mark 7 Mod 3 arresting gear installed, which have the capability of recovering a 50,000-pound (23,000 kg) aircraft at an engaging speed of 130 knots in a distance of 344 feet (104 m), in two seconds. The system is designed to absorb theoretical maximum energy of 47,500,000 foot-pounds (64.4 MJ) at maximum cable run-out.
Prior to the introduction of the angled flight deck, two systems were used (in addition to deck cables) to keep landing aircraft from running into parked aircraft further forward on the flight deck: the barrier and the barricade. If the aircraft tailhook failed to catch a wire, its landing gear would be caught by a 3–4 foot high net known as the barrier. If the aircraft caught a wire upon touchdown, the barrier could be quickly lowered to allow aircraft to taxi over it. The final safety net was the barricade, a large, 15 foot (4.6 m) high net that prevented landing aircraft from crashing into other aircraft parked on the bow. Barriers are no longer in use, although ground-based arresting gear are sometimes called "barriers". Barricades are still in use aboard carriers, but they are only rigged and used in emergencies...
The barricade is an emergency recovery system used only when a normal (pendant) arrestment cannot be made. The barricade is normally in a stowed condition and rigged only when required. To rig a barricade, it is stretched across the flight deck between stanchions, which are raised from the flight deck. Rigging the barricade is routinely practiced by U.S. carrier flight deck personnel; a well trained crew can accomplish the task in under three minutes.
The barricade webbing consists of upper and lower horizontal loading straps joined to each other at the ends. Five vertical engaging straps, spaced 20 feet apart, are connected to each upper and lower load strap. The barricade webbing is raised to a height of approximately 20 feet. The barricade webbing engages the wings of the landing aircraft, wherein energy is transmitted from the barricade webbing through the purchase cable to the arresting engine. Following a barricade arrestment, the webbing and deck cables are discarded and the stanchions are lowered back into their recessed slots. Barricade engagements are rare, as tailhooks are designed to be extremely fail-safe, and an aircraft returning from combat with such severe damage would likely not be able to land. This device has been installed on all American aircraft carriers and on the French Charles de Gaulle, while Brazilian CATOBAR and Russian and Indian STOBAR aircraft carriers have only conventional arresting gear installed.