http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/red_admiral/re2000Cat.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/red_admiral/re2000Catb.jpg
These are pictures of a Re 2000 on the stern of Vittorio Veneto. Can anyone tell me what sort of catapult it is please? Explosive seems most likely, but one source says steam.
Danke
Hi Red Admiral!
First of all welcome here in the forum! :D
To your question:
Breyer writes that the catapults were pneumatic ones. It was 26,30 m long and was able to start planes up to 5000 kg with 36 m/sec up to 42 degrees to each direction.
Here is another link:
http://www.regiamarina.net/arsenals/planes_it/naval_aviation/naval_aviation_us.htm
But mayby some guys here having Garzke & Dulin can confirm this. :)
Ciao all,
the Italian catapult was called : Gagnotto ( design 1935 ) built by the '' Cantieri Navali Riuniti dell'Adriatico - Trieste ''.
It was powered by compressed-air.
You can verify here in :
http://www.associazionenavemuseovittoriovenetocimeliostorico.it/storia_veneto/corazzata_2.htm
and even buy the original drawings here in :
http://www.anb-online.org/page_info.php?products_id=1722
Many did not know that the Italian battleships had a fighter on board able to take off, fight against attacking torpedo bombers and than land on a normal airport in Italy.
I found the idea pretty smart, and always wondered why on board big ships like Bismarck or Tirpitz they did not think about something similar as there were 6 Arado 196 :shock: , .. so lots of room available to change a couple of them with ME 109, .. or later FW 190.
Addittional fuel capacity, .. foldable wings,.. and there you go.
Italian warships had an easier solution as the catapult was back, lots of room and no need of foldable wings, ... just easy.
Ciao Antonio :D
Ciao Red Admiral and all,
by the way, the 2 photos you showed are not taken on board the Vittorio Veneto battleship.
Those 2 photos are taken on the experiment ship ' G. Miraglia ' as the catapult is deep on the deck and pointing to the stern out of the ship.
If you compare the catapult with the ones showed on T-Geronimo link you can evaluate it and find the confirmation.
The second photo according to some Italian experts has been ''retouched'' with the white cloud.
There was an early version of the Gagnotto catapult with explosive, but due to her poor performances and realiability was substituted with the compressed-air version.
On 1942 when those photos were taken the G. Miraglia was equipped only with a compessed-air one.
But that catapult do not create any white cloud, as you can see also on the very beautiful photo really taken on Vittorio Veneto on T-Geronimo link.
That photo shows the Reggiane RE 2000 fighter just leaving the air compressed catapult on Vittorio Veneto and there is no white cloud.
Hope this helps.
Ciao Antonio :D
Thanks Antonio.
I must say that it didn't look exactly like Vittorio Veneto's stern, but I couldn't see a likeness to Giuseppe Miraglia either.
That was what was confusing me. On other photos there is no white cloud, but on this one there is for some reason. It could be digitally redone, but I'm not sure on that.
Gavin