science · 13 November 1907 · 117 years ago
birth
Born 13 Nov 1907; died 6 Apr 2000 at age 92.
English naval aviator, test pilot and inventor of the angled flight deck which gives pilots a second chance when landing on an aircraft carrier. Like any great invention, this idea was outstandingly simple. Without it, pilots landing on a straight deck depended on his plane's tail-hook catching a steel arrester wire across the flight deck to stop before crashing into the barrier and aircraft parked at the far end. Cambell's idea meant that aircraft which failed to stop had a clear escape and could "bolt" under reapplied throttle over the port bow. The US Navy first adopted the idea and made such structural alterations to the carrier Antietam. The British Admiralty, impressed by that ship's field tests, then converted their new large carrier Ark Royal and appointed Cambell as Captain.
OnThisDay.net