Brodie system

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The armored landing ship USS LST-776 with the Brodie system in action off Iwo Jima

The Brodie system was a device with which light reconnaissance aircraft of the US armed forces could take off and land even without a fixed airfield . The system, which could be used both on land and on ships, made it possible to use light aircraft such as the Piper L-4 for artillery observation and reconnaissance flights. The system proved its operational suitability in the Pacific theater of war .

functionality

A 150-meter-long steel cable was stretched between two 15-meter-high masts (mostly tubular steel masts, but sometimes also transportable wooden telegraph masts) with cantilevers , on which a trolley ran, which carried the actual catching system. The catch system consisted of several rope loops that were stretched under the trolley. The entire system weighed just under three and a half tons and could be transported to anywhere in the world by cargo plane and parachute.

The aircraft were equipped with a hook above the wing , which could be adjusted in height from the cockpit and also triggered. The steel cable, on which the aircraft hung like a cable car gondola, formed a replacement for the runway.

At take-off, the aircraft was hooked into the system with the engine running, the pilot then gave full throttle and the brake of the trolley was released after the engine had reached full power. After the aircraft had accelerated to around 120 meters, the pilot disengaged the aircraft using a cable and continued his flight normally. When landing, the pilot aimed the hook at the open loop and latched the aircraft into place. When the hook clicked into place, in contrast to a normal landing, the control stick had to be pushed forward to prevent the aircraft from swinging open and thus preventing contact between the propeller and the steel cable. The trolley then braked the aircraft from airspeed to a stop.

development

The system was developed by James H. Brodie in 1942, then a lieutenant in the American coastal artillery. He had witnessed how a German submarine sank an American freighter in broad daylight off the coast of Georgia . Brodie considered that small planes carried on board ships could give ships the opportunity to detect enemy submarines and thus avoid them or request support. When Brodie submitted his idea together with the drafted plans to the National Council of Inventors, which forwarded the plans to the US Navy , he met with rejection, on the grounds that the system did not work. By chance, Brodie came into contact with the commanding general of the Transportation Corps, who was urgently looking for a system to protect the endangered transport ships. After Brodie had convinced the general of his concept, he was allocated a budget of US $ 10,000 and began his first attempts in New Orleans in April 1943 . In August Lt. CC Wheeler's first successful take-off with the Brodie system, on September 3, 1943, Major James D. Kemp, a B-26 pilot who was waiting to be relocated, completed his first take-off and landing on the system. In September, James Brodie was assigned a permanent test pilot with Flight Officer Raymond Gregory, who also used the Stinson L-5, a much heavier aircraft than the Taylorcraft L-2 previously used .

LST-776 with the Brodie system during testing in the Gulf of Mexico, 1943

At the end of 1943, Brodie equipped the cargo ship City of Dalhart with the system to test its seaworthiness in the Gulf of Mexico. Test pilot Gregory took off and landed on board the ship with both the light L-2 and the heavier L-4 and L-5. With the demonstrations on board the City of Dalhart , Brodie was able to convince the Navy and the Marine Corps , which made the tank landing ship USS LST-776 available to him for further experiments .

commitment

After the system on board the LST-776 had proven its operational suitability, the Navy ordered 25 Brodie systems, with which additional tank landing ships should be equipped to support island jumping in the Pacific. William Joseph Donovan had previously ordered 25 air-packable systems for the Office of Strategic Services , but they were no longer operational before the end of the war.

By the end of the war, eight LSTs were equipped with the Brodie system and ready for action, and LST-776 with the experimental set-up remained in service and took part in the landing on Iwo Jima and Okinawa , among others . The system proved its military value on March 26, 1945, when the invasion fleet for Okinawa passed through the Japanese Kerama Islands . Since the islands were too small to build an airfield, the Americans did not pay much attention to them. Lieutenant John Kriegsman took off his Piper L-4 from LST-776 to scout the islands. He discovered around 50 to 60 caves from which rails led into the water. After returning to the mother ship, he reported that the commanding officer of the association had the islands under fire and occupied. After the landing of the American troops it turned out that speedboats loaded with explosives were waiting in the caves , which should have attacked the US fleet under cover of darkness.

With the advent of the helicopter after World War II, the system was no longer developed.

swell

  • Volker K. Thomalla : A tightrope act - The Brodie system enabled take-off and landing without an airfield. in: Flug Revue Edition Klassiker der Luftfahrt 3/04 , pp. 46–50

Web links

Commons : Brodie System  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker K. Thomalla: tightrope act . P. 48f
  2. ↑ aerofiles.com: A Runway On a Rope , as of November 19, 2008
  3. ↑ a b Volker K. Thomalla: tightrope act . P. 50