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Hello every one. Over the last couple of month's I have been looking for photos of the catapult that was used on the Midway when she had F4's on board, but so far have not found any good photo's showing this area. It seems that the cats have been removed from her as she sets in San Diego today so not much help there.   Am building a diorama using the USN Nimitz Deck with jet Blast Deflector and Catapult, using Zoukei Mura F-4S which has all of the right parts such as the extended nose gear. I have to change the cat itself because its a later cat and the stand that Zoukei makes gives the right type of cat. Any way, am looking for photos of what the cat looked like when the F-4 was hooked up and the hold back adapter in the deck that was used to insert the hold back in to. I served on her in 1975 and was a cat member hooking F-4 up to the cat's. Any help getting photo's of this area would be outstanding. Thank you in advance for your help . Gary 

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I don't have what you're looking for, but here are a few pics of mine on Midway, and a few other links. Maybe they'll help:

https://imgur.com/qVsAoHG

 

https://imgur.com/Von0gwy

 

https://imgur.com/hUz3QXf

 

https://imgur.com/8zf9VVW

 

https://imgur.com/6jecMMX

 

https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VF/Fighter-Squadron-161.htm

 

https://www.seaforces.org/usnships/cv/CV-41-USS-Midway.htm

 

 

Edited by Janissary
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On 9/3/2021 at 5:49 PM, garyshipwright said:

Hello every one. Over the last couple of month's I have been looking for photos of the catapult that was used on the Midway when she had F4's on board, but so far have not found any good photo's showing this area. It seems that the cats have been removed from her as she sets in San Diego today so not much help there.   Am building a diorama using the USN Nimitz Deck with jet Blast Deflector and Catapult, using Zoukei Mura F-4S which has all of the right parts such as the extended nose gear. I have to change the cat itself because its a later cat and the stand that Zoukei makes gives the right type of cat. Any way, am looking for photos of what the cat looked like when the F-4 was hooked up and the hold back adapter in the deck that was used to insert the hold back in to. I served on her in 1975 and was a cat member hooking F-4 up to the cat's. Any help getting photo's of this area would be outstanding. Thank you in advance for your help . Gary 

 

Gary, I'm on a similar search, and this information is pretty hard to find! I'm working my way through lots of YouTube videos to find snippets of information. This one shows the 'cleat track' and the hold-back:

 

 

More later!

 

Rob

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You can find a great set of CV-41 drawings here:

 

https://maritime.org/doc/plans/index.htm

 

As far as I know, Midway got two C13 catapults during the second refit, in 1970. The Italeri kit seems to represent a C13, but configured for the more modern nose gear launch system, not the bridle launch system.

 

You can download cruise books here, they have 26 Midway books:

 

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/

 

Rob

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Rob and thank you very much for the help. Sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner. The video of the Enterprise shows how we did it when it came to the F-4 and hooking it up to the cat. Also thank you for showing me the cruise books.  If you go to uss Midway CV41 WestPac Cruise Book 1975-76, Air Department 11th photo down you will see a photo of the cat crew which I was part of. The item that held me up was the length of the item in the deck that the hold back was locked in to. I thought I had got the length just right but according to the plan of the flight deck showed that I was a little on the short side. Here is some photo's of my F-4 on the cat. I also  added a photo of me from the cruise book and am in the 11 photo  second row, wearing glasses.

192.jpg

DSC_0584.JPG

DSC_0583.JPG

Edited by garyshipwright
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Hi Rob. We had a long box about 4' maybe 5' long, about a foot high,  a accessory, If you think of it like that, that when we were finished getting all the phantom's off of the deck or vise a verse we would install this box which allowed us to used a short bar type of hold back much like the one's  that are used today. Of course in my time, we still used the small breaking bars/ t bars and today they have a hold back with  a mechanism that does the same thing but is used over and over. Forgive me I seem to have forgot what they was really called the t bars that is. Now that box is installed in the deck  flush with the surface of the deck and is a more permanent installation. I do remember that it took four of us to lift it and set it in place and was then screwed down to plates of the cat. Hope this helps. Gary

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19 hours ago, garyshipwright said:

Hi Rob and thank you very much for the help. Sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner. The video of the Enterprise shows how we did it when it came to the F-4 and hooking it up to the cat. Also thank you for showing me the cruise books.  If you go to uss Midway CV41 WestPac Cruise Book 1975-76, Air Department 11th photo down you will see a photo of the cat crew which I was part of. The item that held me up was the length of the item in the deck that the hold back was locked in to. I thought I had got the length just right but according to the plan of the flight deck showed that I was a little on the short side. Here is some photo's of my F-4 on the cat. I also  added a photo of me from the cruise book and am in the 11 photo  second row, wearing glasses.

DSC_0583.JPG

 

What a great result! I'm glad I could help. I love the way you positioned the various cat crew, so much more realistic compared to what I've seen before. And your suggestion of the next aircraft approaching the cat area, so nice 🙂

 

Rob

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18 hours ago, garyshipwright said:

Hi Rob. We had a long box about 4' maybe 5' long, about a foot high,  a accessory, If you think of it like that, that when we were finished getting all the phantom's off of the deck or vise a verse we would install this box which allowed us to used a short bar type of hold back much like the one's  that are used today. Of course in my time, we still used the small breaking bars/ t bars and today they have a hold back with  a mechanism that does the same thing but is used over and over. Forgive me I seem to have forgot what they was really called the t bars that is. Now that box is installed in the deck  flush with the surface of the deck and is a more permanent installation. I do remember that it took four of us to lift it and set it in place and was then screwed down to plates of the cat. Hope this helps. Gary

 

I think you're talking about the Mark 1 version of the 'nose gear launch system'. I collected a few pictures of it so far.

 

Do I understand you correctly that a crew could install it in a relatively short time, say 10 minutes? That is something I did not know.

 

Rob

 

carrierdecks-026.jpg

 

carrierdecks-028.jpg

 

carrierdecks-091.jpg

 

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Hi Rob. If my memory served me right it was installed in 5 minutes or less. Four of us would carry it over and bolted it down  and other then that the head of the shuttle, it was changed from the one used for F-4 to the ones for A-7A, Ea6B and  other's that used the nose gear for take off. The shuttle that was used for nose gear launches was permanent to the cat and the one for the F-4's  was installed over the permanent one. Gary. 

Edited by garyshipwright
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45 minutes ago, garyshipwright said:

Hi Rob. If my memory served me right it was installed in 5 minutes or less. Four of us would carry it over and bolted it down  and other then that the head of the shuttle, it was changed from the one used for F-4 to the ones for A-7A, Ea6B and  other's that used the nose gear for take off. The shuttle that was used for nose gear launches was permanent to the cat and the one for the F-4's  was installed over the permanent one. Gary. 

 

Very interesting again! I have pictures of the two shuttle variants that you mention.

 

 

carrierdecks-046.jpg

 

carrierdecks-047.jpg

 

Rob

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  • 7 months later...

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