Aircraft lifting crane

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An aircraft lifting crane is a crane used to move aircraft between ship and water or vice versa.

USS Pine Iceland , 1965

Special aircraft lifting cranes were developed through experience with aircraft transport ship / water-water / ship with the aircraft mother ships. The aircraft motherships moved planes with cranes. Initially, these were the mostly simple cargo booms that were on board before the ships were converted, but then turned out to be unsuitable for the new task. For example, when moving the aircraft with the loading booms, some crew members of the ships had to laboriously prevent the aircraft being moved by the crane from hitting the ship with guide lines and long bamboo poles wrapped at the top with felt rags.

Therefore, special ship cranes were developed for moving aircraft. You have the right boom length as well as a specially designed technology for smoothly picking up the aircraft on the hook. Aircraft lying on the water move differently in the vertical direction, depending on the swell. In order to prevent damage to the aircraft, techniques for cushioning these movements have been developed. In addition, the ship's own movement must also be compensated for. The following requirements are placed on an aircraft lifting crane: "elastic transition, speed, fine adjustment and protection against swaying".

Aircraft lifting cranes are usually placed at the stern of the ship, because that is where there is the greatest freedom of movement for aircraft to be deployed or deployed. In the air traffic control ships of the German Air Force built from 1935 onwards , the aircraft lifting crane was also mounted on rails so that it could move an aircraft on board using the crane.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jung / Wenzel / Abendroth: The ships and boats of the German sea pilots , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, page 20
  2. ↑ Jochen Brennecke : Gespensterkreuzer HK 33 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1974, page 95
  3. ↑ Simon Mittenhuber: The German catapult aircraft and slingshot ships , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2004, page 199