Jerry Beaulier talks about flying from an Aircraft Carrier

President Arthur Griffiths welcomed club member  Jerry Beaulier as speaker for the lunch meeting on 19th August.  Jerry had spent 20 years with the US Navy reaching the rank of lieutenant commander. Much of this service was as a pilot on aircraft carriers with 550 carrier landings and 221 combat missions.

Jerry started with a brief review of the history of carriers with the first mention in the US Navy being in 1910 and the first take off and landing on a cruiser in 1911. This was followed by the first Japanese Seaplane carrier in 1914. Developments in scale and technology continued up towards the second world war with the launch of HMS Ark Royal in 1937 and USS Midway in 1945 - the latter is now moored in San Diego harbour.  After the Korean war, carriers capable of taking 90 plus aircraft, 5000 crew and modern defensive systems were developed. Jerry then highlighted some of the specific British contributions which included steam catapults, angle decks and the ski jump. The next generation of Queen Elizabeth carriers, currently under construction, will see a further advance in both scale and technology.

Jerry then gave an overview of some of the technical aspects of the carrier landing system including the catapults for take off, arresting cables for stopping and the optical landing system. He then ran a number of video clips showing take offs and landings, many from the pilot's viewpoint. The titles of the individual clips tell the story: 'Landing'; 'Night Landing'; 'Heavy seas'; 'Bad landing'; 'Really Bad landing'; 'Recovery'; 'Lucky landing'. Despite the amusing titles, the overall impression was of how terrifying the landing process seemed, the incredible skill required and that there was absolutely no scope for error.

In giving the vote of thanks, Sylvia Donaldson first congratulated Jerry on staying alive and how very scary it looked! She then thanked him for a most entertaining talk that had combined humour with  technical background whilst also giving some insight into the skills and nerve required of a pilot on an aircraft carrier.