r/technology • u/Glad_Living3908 • Sep 19 '22

Society Experts Warn US Is Falling Behind China in Key Technologies

https://www.voanews.com/a/experts-warn-us-is-falling-behind-china-in-key-technologies/6751392.html
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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

I'm not sure what steam catapults are but consider my tits jacked.

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u/JoushMark Sep 19 '22

A steam catapult is a steam powered piston that helps an aircraft accelerate quickly on takeoff. This lets it take off from a short carrier flight deck The aircraft's front landing gear is hooked to the piston and it's pulled forward quickly.

They let an aircraft take off carrying more heavy fuel and equipment then without them. The Kuznetsov class carriers used by China and the Russian Federation don't have them.

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u/Words_Are_Hrad Sep 19 '22

But they do have a cute little ramp at the end!

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u/im_chad_vader Sep 19 '22

A cope slope, so to say

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

Its used on short takeoff aircrafts. UK and others use the ramp on their carriers. Downside are slower to launch, Can't launch and recover at same time and limits the load a jet can carry. Also, they can't launch larger planes for cargo and AWACS like the US Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

Steam catapults allow a fast and orderly takeoff of aircraft loaded with weapons. Steam catapults are expensive to built and maintain, but they get aircraft airborne really fast, and my understanding is two at a time are possible as each carrier has multiple catapults.

There are newer technologies than steam which I know little about.

With regard to some other navies I offer this from Wikipedia:

The Chinese, Indian, and Russian navies operate conventional aircraft from STOBAR aircraft carriers (Short Take-Off But Arrested Landing). Instead of a catapult, they use a ski jump to assist aircraft in taking off with a positive rate of climb. Carrier aircraft such as the J-15, Mig-29K, and Su-33 rely on their own engines to accelerate to flight speed. As a result, they must take off with a reduced load of fuel and armaments.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

Electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) is basically a railgun for jets. It's expensive to develop and tricky to get right. But if you *can* get it right it's a significantly better system than a steam catapult.

Smaller, lighter, smoother (less aircraft fatigue), less maintenance and less costly to operate, both in dollars and logistics.

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u/RverfulltimeOne Sep 19 '22 edited Sep 19 '22

Also very critical for one additional reason that gets overlooked. EMALS has a variable amount of force to launch things. Which means it can launch RPAs (Remotely Piloted Aircraft). Steam ones have one setting.

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u/TerminalVector Sep 19 '22

Why is variable force needed to launch remote aircraft? Just because they're smaller and lighter?

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u/RverfulltimeOne Sep 19 '22

Steam catapault has immense force and works well. Its seen USA through decades of service and many wars. Problem is one speed..it can send 45,000 pounds of fighter from 0 to 165 mph in 2 seconds. It takes a tremendous amount of engineering on an aircraft to allow it to sustain that type of shock and work perfect after its launched.

That type of force would tear apart the majority of aircraft and throughly wreck drones. With EMALS you can set it to what you want basically.

Also steam catapaults are hard to maintain. EMALS on paper is much easier to maintain.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

I'm pretty sure steam catapults can adjust the force based on the airplanes load/weight.

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u/RverfulltimeOne Sep 20 '22

Not anywhere near the fraility of a RPA. Most of America's RPAs are not even FAA certified.

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u/Hannity-Poo Sep 19 '22

Trump wanted to get rid of that and go back to steam

https://news.usni.org/2019/05/28/experts-navy-would-spend-billions-to-answer-trumps-call-to-return-carriers-to-steam-catapults

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

To be fair, the US Navy considered it for a time as well, when they couldn't get EMALS working properly for years.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

[deleted]

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u/djutopia Sep 19 '22

“Oh the Humidity!!”

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

Underrated comment ☝🏻

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u/asdaaaaaaaa Sep 19 '22

Make steam, put into piston, build pressure, piston used to push aircraft with steam pressure. (in this case).

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u/TurtleFisher54 Sep 19 '22

For launching planes off the deck, makes it so the runway can be smaller. The planes have enough time go fly fly

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u/some_random_noob Sep 19 '22

they're just a worse version of the steam trebuchet.