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> Nobody thought to build a prototype on land first before agreeing to put it on a carrier? The article does talk about "land testing" so I assume they have a
by simplicio 9y ago
> Nobody thought to build a prototype on land first before agreeing to put it on a carrier?
The article does talk about "land testing" so I assume they have a mock-up somewhere in the desert to test this stuff in a place where failure doesn't send the pilot/plane into the ocean.
I think the problem is that they were still testing these technologies at the same time that they were building the ship, so now there's only so far they can go in modifying them from their original assumptions while still staying withing the power/space/layout specifications the ship was designed around.
- cottsak 9y agoYes I believe this is correct. When they do get it working on land (http://www.henselphelps.com/projects/electro-magnetic-aircraft-launch-system-emals-land-based-test-site-facility http://www.henselphelps.com/projects/electro-magnetic-aircra...) it will very likely deviate so far from the original assumptions incorporated into the design of the carrier that huge retrofits will need to be made to the carrier to apply the changes. Either they will do that, or simply cut corners and fail to report it accurately. This will fly under the radar until some tragedy. But the root cause of that will likely be covered up too.