Wild video shows wheeled vehicles weighing up to 80,000 pounds each being dropped into the Virginia River from the flight deck of the U.S. Navy’s new supercarrier USS John F. Kennedy to test the ship’s aircraft launch system is shown.
An exciting video, Shipbuilding company Hunting Ingalls Industries launches Last week, an orange car-like vehicle was seen traveling more than 300 feet down a catapult track on the bow of a supercarrier at speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour, before being lifted into the air and landing in the James River with a huge splash. showed that.
The vehicle was then recovered from the water and fired again until the end of the test program.
The heavy vehicle, which weighs as much as a fighter jet, was thrown off a multibillion-dollar ship as part of what is known in the industry as a “dead load” test.
The process is designed to ensure the supercarrier’s catapults are ready “for its primary purpose: launching all carrier-borne fixed-wing aircraft flown by the U.S. Navy,” the shipyard said. said in a statement.
U.S. aircraft specifically designed for operations from carriers include the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the E-2 Hawkeye.
The first so-called “dead loads” used during the testing phase contained encouraging messages of congratulations and gratitude written by shipyard families.
“As the construction, testing and delivery of John F. Kennedy continues to progress, reaching the dead load testing stage is a visual demonstration of how far we have come.” News Shipyard Vice President Lucas Hicks said. A division of Hunting Ingalls Industries.
Kennedy is the second of the Gerald R. Ford-class supercarriers under construction at Newport News Shipyard. It was launched and named in 2019 after more than 10 years of development and construction and is valued at $11.3 billion.
Two other Ford-class carriers, Enterprise and Doris Miller, are under construction at Newport News.
