Dummy Decks

I said earlier,

Arbroath, East Haven and Henstridge had full ADDL (Aerodrome Dummy Deck Landing) facilities, with arrester wires and associated carrier equipment

May be wrong here regarding the first two.

Dummy decks served three purposes:

1) For aircraft to practice landing on the deck of a carrier.
2) For trainee deck controllers to perform the above.
3) For deck controllers and pilots to practice aircraft maneuverability in a small space with other aircraft in close proximity.

Arrester equipment was clearly essential for (1) and unimportant in the last case.

Arbroath and East haven were used mainly for (3)

The big problem with the deck for (1) was that is was only of use when the wind was in the right direction.

Despite a determined search in TNA, I've found nothing on the subject - in common with most WWII information relating to the FAA.

Did these dummy decks have standard dimensions as well?

There is an excellent chapter on this very subject in Mason, F. K. (1981) Harrier! Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge.

To very broadly summarise: Lt-Cmdr D. R. Taylor RN illustrated, in a thesis he was writing at Southampton University in 1972, that a ski-jump would show gains in the take-off performance of VSTOL aircraft.

The Hawker Siddeley engineers at Kingston continued Taylor's work (they has been involved with the thesis) and by 1974 and 1975, had established the principle. Until mid-1975, there was little official interest until the Sea Harrier was finally sanctioned and in late 1976, the first ramp was sanctioned by the MoD. Built by British Steel in just five months at RAE Bedford, the first ramp had a variable angle from six to twenty degrees. The first launch was on August 5th 1977, comprising 73 launches with Harrier GR.1 XV281. These were followed by a further 43 launches with Harrier T.2A XW175. Further launches were also carried out using the two-seat Harrier demonstrator G-VTOL.

The Farnborough ramp (which you mentioned Pete) was installed in 1978, used for the airshow of that year and a total of 78 launches were made off of it.

It would also seem that NAS Patuxent River in Maryland (I think!) also had a ramp. YAV-8B 71-58394 of the US Marines was tested there in 1979.

Hope this helps folks.

Chris

PS - no plagiarism - it's my own summary There are also some photos but I don't want infringe copyright. Anyone able to advise please?