
Caption | Yorktown making 17.5 knots astern during her preliminary standardization trials, run #41, off Rockland, Maine, United States, 12-21 July 1937 ww2dbase | |||||
Photographer | Unknown | |||||
Source | ww2dbaseUnited States National Archives | |||||
Identification Code | 19-N-17422 | |||||
More on... |
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Photo Size | 740 x 573 pixels | |||||
Added By | C. Peter Chen | |||||
Licensing | Public Domain. According to the US National Archives, as of 21 Jul 2010: Please contact us regarding any inaccuracies with the above information. Thank you. |
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Colorized By WW2DB |
Colorized with Adobe Photoshop |
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Visitor Submitted Comments
2.
David Stubblebine says:
2 Aug 2012 04:03:56 PM
The official Navy caption for this photo includes that she “is pushing up a handsome ‘moustache’ stern wave.” Carriers of this class were required to make good speed astern to allow the landing of planes over the bow and launching over the stern if necessary. The early Essex-class carriers had the same performance requirement and similar photos were taken during their trials. Aviators (which in all cases included the captains of aircraft carriers) never thought much of the idea of flight operations on a carrier going backwards, feeling that this requirement always sounded better on someone’s desk than it did at sea. I am aware of no operational use of this concept and by 1944, partly because of the dependence on arresting cables, the requirement was dropped.

2 Aug 2012 04:03:56 PM
The official Navy caption for this photo includes that she “is pushing up a handsome ‘moustache’ stern wave.” Carriers of this class were required to make good speed astern to allow the landing of planes over the bow and launching over the stern if necessary. The early Essex-class carriers had the same performance requirement and similar photos were taken during their trials. Aviators (which in all cases included the captains of aircraft carriers) never thought much of the idea of flight operations on a carrier going backwards, feeling that this requirement always sounded better on someone’s desk than it did at sea. I am aware of no operational use of this concept and by 1944, partly because of the dependence on arresting cables, the requirement was dropped.
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14 Feb 2010 05:15:07 PM
If you will notice the photo is unusual as she is making 17.5 knots astern!