Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 250 Lights Assist Takeoff and Landing

Wang Gensheng told them to wait a little longer, because there was still a crucial piece of equipment on the Qing aircraft carrier that had not been installed.

Besides takeoff, landing is the foundation and core of all operational capabilities of an aircraft carrier system, and in addition to arresting cables, optical landing aids are also crucial.

The pilot, flying his carrier-based aircraft, spotted a leaf on the sea high in the sky—that was the aircraft carrier. At that moment, the flight control personnel on the bridge had to ensure that the tailhook and landing gear of the carrier-based aircraft were down and that the optical landing aid system was ready before guiding the aircraft to land.

This optical device, consisting of five square light boxes installed on the port side of the aircraft carrier, is the Fresnel lens, an optical landing aid. This "traffic light"-like device emits a straight beam of light that can only be observed at a specific angle, guiding the pilot along a predetermined glide path to the carrier. During the descent phase as the carrier-based aircraft approaches the carrier, the correct glide angle must be strictly adhered to.

The Fresnel landing system is located on a self-stabilizing platform on the port side of the aircraft carrier to ensure that its beam is not affected by the ship's rolling motion.

The Fresnel landing system projects a visible light channel composed of several colors onto the landing carrier-based aircraft; different areas are composed of different colors to facilitate pilot identification.

Pilots can determine whether they are permitted to land, as well as their altitude and lateral deviation, based on the colors they see; they can continuously adjust the aircraft's attitude and trajectory to ensure that the aircraft is always on the most reasonable glide path and ultimately land successfully.

This optical system was not invented during World War II, but in 1952, when British naval officer Goodhart came up with a magic weapon—an optical concave mirror descent system.

It was quite a coincidence. One day, he saw his female secretary applying lipstick in front of the mirror in his office, and he suddenly realized that installing a "mirror" on an aircraft carrier might solve the problem of jet fighter landings. Thus, the famous concave mirror landing system was born. It mainly consists of many white light bulbs, with a quasi-green reference line installed at the edge of the concave mirror. The pilot then steers the aircraft, keeping the white light horizon line aligned with the green reference line, to complete the landing. The concave mirror can also be adjusted to accommodate the different approach angles required by different types of aircraft.

Later, military technicians developed a lens-based optical landing aid called a Fresnel lens. Because the flight deck of an aircraft carrier is much shorter and narrower than that of an airport, the landing point of the aircraft must be extremely precise.

If it's too far forward, the plane will overshoot the deck and fall into the sea; if it's too far back, it might collide with the stern of the aircraft carrier. It's truly a matter of being neither too far forward nor too far back; even the slightest difference could lead to disaster.

It consists of four sets of lights, mainly five segmented light boxes arranged vertically in the middle. These light boxes emit five layers of beams through Fresnel lenses. The beams are parallel to the landing runway and maintain a certain angle with the sea level, forming five layers of slope.

Each beam segment has a height of 6.6 meters at the entrance of the glide slope for carrier-based aircraft. The central segment is an orange beam, which turns yellow and red when moving upwards and downwards, respectively. There are horizontal green reference fixed lights on both sides of the central segment light box.

When the aircraft's altitude and glide angle are correct, the pilot can see the orange ball of light centered on the green reference light. Maintaining this angle will allow for an accurate glide and landing.

If the pilot sees a yellow ball of light above the green reference light, he should descend; if he sees a red ball of light below the green reference light, he should ascend immediately, otherwise he will crash into the tailstock of the aircraft carrier or descend into the sea behind it.

On either side of the central light box are two sets of red flashing lights arranged vertically. If landing is not permitted, these lights will flash, and the green reference light and the central light box will both turn off, instructing the pilot to stop descent and immediately go around. This is why it is called the "go-around light." Above the go-around light is a set of green lights called cut-off lights; their activation signals permission to begin the glide.

As for why Wang Gensheng, who doesn't have a high level of education, knows so much about aircraft carriers, it's mainly because before he traveled through time, aircraft carrier development was booming, which led to a flood of information about aircraft carriers on the internet.

No matter what type of online streamer, they will all say a few words about aircraft carriers, and Wang Gensheng is also paying attention to them. After all, what Chinese man doesn't love military matters? The reason why this optical landing aid system was only invented after World War II is mainly because, with the advent of jet aircraft, the minimum speed of carrier-based aircraft has been increasing, from less than 200 km/h stall speed of propeller-driven aircraft to 300 or even 400 km/h.

If the fighter jet does not land at a speed higher than that, it will stall and crash into the sea.

Therefore, the requirements for pilots who land carrier-based aircraft are becoming increasingly higher.

With such high speeds, the time available for carrier-based aircraft pilots to adjust is becoming increasingly shorter.

For example, fighter jets used to be able to land safely on an aircraft carrier deck at speeds of 150 kilometers per hour without stalling. However, after switching to jet fighters, the speed directly reaches 300 kilometers per hour, which directly reduces the reaction time by half, and the difficulty of landing naturally increases significantly.

Thus, the lighting assistance system that could help fighter pilots land was developed.

Of course, whether or not the Congqing-class aircraft carrier, which is mainly composed of propeller-driven fighters, needs this landing system is not that important. However, having it will allow pilots to land better and safer, so there is no harm in installing it.

Of course, with the development and installation of this lighting-assisted landing system, time flew by and it was already 1950. The entire modification was basically completed, and what remained was to carry out real aircraft carrier and carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing experiments with Zero Mustangs.

However, Wang Gensheng did not choose to conduct carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing training in the Bohai Sea next to his own shipyard, but instead decided to conduct the training inland.

Compared to the coast, the inland areas are relatively safe. Moreover, the Congqing aircraft carrier is only a light aircraft carrier of less than 10,000 tons, so it is not a problem to sail along the Yangtze River to Nanjing.

More importantly, the Zero Mustang fighter, which was to be used as a carrier-based aircraft, actually had to take off from Nanjing Airport and then land on the aircraft carrier that was parked on the river.

That's right, it means taking off from the airport and then landing on the aircraft carrier, not having a crane lift it onto the carrier.

This raises a problem: the pilots Wang Gensheng sent to flight schools for flight training had always practiced at land-based airports.

Landing suddenly on an aircraft carrier would certainly be frightening, even intimidating, and if the first landing fails, for example, if the hook does not engage the arresting cable, it would put the pilot under tremendous psychological pressure.

This can then affect the second landing, or even prevent the aircraft from catching up at all, causing pilots to be afraid to land.

(End of this chapter)