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ELECTRONIC CATAPULT
Catapults
are an ancient technology, developed from the crossbow
for increased range and firepower. Now catapults
are going electronic and making important leaps
in military uses.
Currently,
the steam-driven catapults on aircraft-carriers are not
powerful enough to launch aircrafts by themselves. Carrier must turn into a headwind
to provide extra speed. If
there is no wind, the ship must run faster to generate
one.
The new catapult, called Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch
System (EMALS), is much lighter than the steam one but
can accelerate a plane to 180 knots —about 30 knots
faster than current steam catapult. And since the acceleration can be adjusted every
millisecond, it produces smoother launches.
EMALS uses
tremendous amount of burst energy. The system is
quite expensive, partly because it has to be squeezed into
tight
quarters. The four-catapult system for the USS Gerald R.
Ford costs about $750m, giving the ship the ability to
launch 220 airstrikes a day. The new system cut crewing and
upkeep expenses by about $250m over its 50-year life.
The US Navy
is also developing uses of electronic catapults to launch
projectiles and missiles.
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