Part 2 of the P-40 video will be out next :)
F.A.Q Section

Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)

Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.

Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)

Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.

Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)

All comments from YouTube:

Rex's Hangar

2y↑97

Damien

2y↑2

What engine sound do you use in your video intros?....im assuming a rolls royce merlin?

I Am Arizonaball

2y↑2

When are you gonna make the Saunders Roe Queen Episode?

Brendon Bewersdorf

Since your covering interesting naval aviation could you do a video on the resupply ships used for the American airships like uss Akron? It's fascinating to see a ship designed for airship resupply at sea

steve shoemaker

2y↑1

Thanks again my friend....Are you feeling better now ?....Shoe🇺🇸

Allan Gibson

The Airship aircraft carriers were navy operated.

12 More Replies...

Montgomery G.

2y↑379

The amount of footage recorded of what is a fairly obscure piece of history is impressive. Very much enjoyed the video.

Bob Smith

2y↑29

One of the things they frequently do when developing new aircraft - is to film the hell out of it. Also, the United States Navy films every single landing aboard a carrier.

In both cases it's desired to have a video record of anything that might have gone wrong.

Before Reality TV ... The Discovery Channel had a series called Wings which consisted primarily of just such test footage. One such recording was of an F-4 Phantom II having a problem that caused the pilot to eject - and a subsequent loss of the aircraft - all recorded for later analysis and future Cable TV Shows.
.

Rex's Hangar

2y↑31

The U.S did a great job at recording EVERYTHING and then looking after said records. Wish other countries back then did the same..

Skeletor Jenkins

2y↑1

This looks like a "Wait. Let me get a camera" kind of a device.

luigi vincenz

2y↑1

Agreed. Thanks to Rex and the National Archives. The footage is amazing. I even heard a guy from the Japanese Ministry sending their staff over to the US National Archives for information from centuries ago about their own homeland.

2 More Replies...

Felipe Jaquez

2y↑402

If this was introduced much earlier in the war it probably would have done well.

Classicman_269

2y↑60

No doubt that the british would have had at least two to four of these on ships per convoy with sub hunting equipment. Would have also been useful for artillery spotting in North Africa.

Alexsis

2y↑37

Yeah that was my thoughts exactly. This would have been huge for sub spotting on convoy duty and would have also been really useful in rugged terrain or contested areas. The system would have been nearly impossible to destroy compared to a more standard runway.

Jared Maddox

2y↑9

Might have seen use on some of the cruisers & battleships as spotters too, whether floatplanes or otherwise.

Honestly, I'm a little surprised it didn't make it's way to civilian freighters post-war. You'd think the added capability would have been considered appealing in the early days of helicopters.

MonkeyJedi99

2y↑3

It's kind of a reverse Skyhook.

Rian Felis

2y↑5

@Jared Maddox I can't see it being used at all in a civilian market. The only real advantage it has over a seaplane is the faster recovery time, which won't matter much outside of war zones. The wire itself definitely limits the capabilities of the plane far more than requiring a water or traditional runway.

8 More Replies...

Mr Pug

2y↑137

Ah yes, the Grasshoppers... The tiny aircraft that were deemed almost harmless by the enemy, yet returned fire with artillery barrages when shot at.

DynamicWorlds

2y↑25

It's been said that one of the deadliest weapons of the war was the radio.

Avi8

2y↑14

One modified Grasshopper was equipped with 6 M1 Bazooka rocket launchers. Normally Germany didn't fire at scouts, but Rosie the Rocketeer, as you can imagine, was quite different.

Llamatronian

2y↑8

At one point in Europe, an American and a German spotter plane found themselves in the same airspace. The Americans engaged the enemy with handguns, because of course they did.

One German was hit and the plane forced to land. The American plane landed next them, took the Germans prisoner, and provided medical care.

Private Red

2y↑2

@Avi8 i actually got to see rosie in a museum, it was awesome

2 More Replies...

Dr Jebus

2y↑37

So many of the 'failed' designs you can clearly see problems with from the get go. But this was a down-right ingenious idea. Had timing been different, this may well have been used much more. I'm sure Atlantic convoys would have loved these during the U-boats peak.

Guardias

2y↑301

If we didn't have footage I'd be inclined to call this fiction...

tenofprime

2y↑18

That is the wonderful thing about some of these wartime designs. Desperation to find anything that works gets lots of oddball stuff greenlit.

Felipe Jaquez

2y↑2

This has nothing to do with the video but there's supposedly 2 replies below this comment but when I click on the thread there's nothing there. Strange.

Mark Williams

2y↑3

@Felipe Jaquez
YouTube being YouTube. The comments may be under review or have been reported.

David Murphy

2y↑5

I knew about this from an aviation history book I found in the town library that was written in The late 1950s.

4 More Replies...

Rob Graham

2y↑107

I learn so much watching your channels. I'd never heard of this before now. Fascinating.

James Bugbee

2y↑52

The Zeppelin/Sparrowhawk combo was a USN project.
LSTs were endlessly useful.💜

Richard Anderson

2y↑34

Weird aviation systems are always interesting....and ones that actually worked as intended are very interesting and all too rare. Thanks!

Jörgen Åstrand

2y↑66

Excellent video, good research but I think it was actually the french pilot Adolphe Pegoud that did the first cable hook-up in a Bleriot aeroplane. The use of artillery spotter planes during WW2 is in itself worth several videos, I spent hours with the late Joe Gordon, L-4 pilot in the ETO and the stories he could tell was absolutely amazing.

Brian Reddeman

2y↑5

He made a mention in the video 🙂

Peter Morris

2y↑91

The number of innovative, successful solutions to unique problems developed during WWII is truly incredible.

I’m going to have to put this up there with the bat bomb as one of my favorites.

Attaxalotl

2y↑1

The bomb full of bats or the radio-guided one?

Peter Morris

2y↑4

@Attaxalotl The bomb full of bats. Such an incredible invention!

Attaxalotl

@Peter Morris Saint Olga of Kyiv moment

S31Syntax

2y↑3

The Dam Buster is a favorite of mine, although the Pigeon Guidance system is another favorite

Reynaldo and Annie Angnged

Which one, the literal bat dispenser? Or the radar-guided one? Both are my faves.

1 More Replies...

Trooper DGB

2y↑20

Glad to find he was awarded the Legion of Merit for his work during the war...and established a successful engineering company afterwards!

Krillcanoe25

2y↑35

Reminds me of the skyhook system developed for the Harrier. Albeit, more successful...and possibly saner.

Alexsis

2y↑4

The skyhook was really just a continuation of the airship hook up system mentioned at the start of the video only its being used from a crane on the side of a ship.

Todd Marcum

2y↑30

I just seen this ship (LST 325)in Ashland, KY, last weekend. They had a section speaking about this. Absolutely insane. The ship I was on (floating museum now) participated in Sicily, Salerno, and Normandy. It was getting this and more AA upgrades in the US for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. Crazy you put out this video so shortly after me seeing the display about this system.

Duane Degn

2y↑1

Very cool. Thanks for telling us.

1 More Replies...

Stalking Horse

2y↑39

Brodie is more well known for his other invention which also bears his name, the steering wheel knob.

Bradrock

2y↑6

Always good to learn something new. I always thought it was Harvey Suicide.

randomnickify

2y↑6

@Bradrock No, he developed suicide doors.

neighbor - J -

2y↑5

I drive a CAT material handler all day, and I can tell you that little Brodie knob exponentially increases productivity. It's always the simple solutions that are the most elegant...

Joseph King

2y↑2

There's a knob behind every steering wheel and it has a name. In my car the knob is called Joseph.........HEY, that's my name. 🤦‍♂

Guy Pehaim

2y↑14

Thank you for bringing this piece of history to us. I have never heard of the Brodie system before. Pretty neat idea!

William Cox

2y↑15

"Taking a Brodie" is a time-honored American slang phrase from the early years of the last century. It means face planting yourself in concrete. Brodie was a notorious thrill seeker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Brodie_(bridge_jumper) That makes the name of the new landing system pretty darn funny.

Retro Games Collector

2y↑8

Yet another hole in my aviation knowledge that has been filled! Fascinating stuff, thanks Rex!

Eye Roll Therefore I Am

2y↑61

"We need a pilot to test this new system." Wyle E. Coyote receives new orders!

Elwood P. Dowd

2y↑9

A. C. M. E. Brody landing system.

Jonathan Smith

2y↑8

In a weird coincidence I hadn't heard of this system until this week -- when it appeared not only here, but also briefly a few days ago on a massive Q&A ['The Drydock - Episode 213 (Part 2)'] over on Drachinifel's naval history channel.
Thanks for the more in depth history of this weird and wonderful system!

Mr. Dmitri Ravenoff

2y↑8

This is fascinating. Such a dieselpunk system. I'm amazed there were places that could take off with such a low speed even in ww2. I wonder if they could have cable Catapult assisted the takeoff if it had gone further?

ACH

2y↑4

With the plane being slung off to the side, using rocket assist might actually also be possible since you don't have to worry about the rocket backblast burning anything on the deck of your (presumably) cargo vessel.

Alone Spirit

2y↑1

@ACH Except that these little planes were fabric covered, that rocket assist might well ignite the airplane it is assisting.

ACH

2y↑2

@Alone Spirit The rocket assist is for heavier aircraft obviously. these grasshoppers clearly didn't need any assistance to takeoff on their own power.

Greg Edmand

2y↑4

This is why I love this place... Great and often unique coverage rarely seen anywhere else. Can you imagine how useful this light aircraft system would have been earlier in the war during the Solomon's campaign?

Sean O'Brien

2y↑18

I greatly enjoyed this explanation of a fascinating technology, but did have one quibble: The US aircraft that operated from rigid airships were flown by naval pilots, not Army Air Corps. The Shenandoah, Los Angeles, Akron, and Macon were commissioned vessels of the USN.

I’d also argue that, while similar systems used by the British and Germans never really worked out, these landings and takeoffs did become a safe and routine event on the scout airships.

Alexsis

2y↑1

Part of that is because the US were doing it in the 20s while the British and Germans were mostly looking at trying to do that prior to WW1. Aircraft and the concept itself had at least another decade of development. Even still most of it was testing done with the plan being to use the rigid airship Roma as an actual mothership. But when she crashed any chance of a true american flying carrier burned with her.

Joseph King

@Alexsis 👍

johnscloud

2y↑4

I just learned something new! Amazing what hidden gems are out there waiting to be discovered. A follow up on this type of launch and recovery system? Would this have been an inspiration to the recovery system of downed pilots later on in Vietnam?

Graham Baxter

2y↑4

Glad to see the Brodie getting some love. Such a novel system that (unintended pun) tends to fly under folk's radar.
I've had some fun imagining the results if the system was invented a decade prior.

Alain Michel

2y↑5

Unbelievable! I had never heard of that system, or anything close to it! I'm even more amazed that it wasn't just a prototype, but saw actual action in war operations! 😮

Stefan Hundhammer

2y↑3

Fascinating. You really have a knack of finding aviation topics that are rarely covered. Thank you!

Shigure1863

2y↑2

I had no idea this was ever a thing. Thank you so much for bringing this to our collective attentions. A fascinating and still potentially viable option even in this day and age.

Gino BluecoreVPN

2y↑3

Wow! Those pilots were skilled and very brave. Thanks for making this video, it's wonderful to learn something new.

Nil

2y↑2

I find the Brodie landing system so cool! Thank you for making a video about this very smart, low cost and reliable system!

Rich McGee

2y↑3

Don't think I've ever seen so much footage of this system in one place before. Nice work, very good synopsis and compilation.

AussieFan

2y↑1

Amazing content Rex. I have seen and read a lot about WW2 but this is the first time I heard of this contraption! For an Aircraft request a Junker JU87 Stuka would be great

CraftIngo

2y↑1

This is again one great and informative Video Rex! If you're further interested in strange Aircraft Carriers, you might want to take a look at the Japanese U-Boat Class I-400 or Sen-Toku Class
The biggest U-Boats with conventional drive ever created. They could carry 3 Aichi M6A Aircrafts but had a diving depth of only 100 m due to the rather huge hangar.

Marc

Awesome! First I'd ever heard of the Brodie System, so a great little vignette. Thanks for putting it together, Rex.

Jason LeClare

2y↑2

I love these very specific solutions to very specific problems. They're often amazingly weird, but in context make a reasonable amount of sense.

hnorrstrom

2y↑2

Interesting, reminds me of the Swedish seaplane carrying cruiser Gotland (1933 ) famous for being the one that observed Bismarck when he left port for the first mission which lead to the British following him, after they got the news from the Swedes.

channing walmsley

2y↑3

I ran across these suspended runways a little while back, so glad they are getting some coverage!

Wandering Bishop

2y↑6

"Fully successful at intended use, but rendered obscure due to the incredibly fast progress of aeronautical engineering" is a respectable epitaph.

Ted Smith

I can imagine having one of these cool plane launching LST's converted into a custom floating home with a nice bushplane. Wow, the places you could go! Thanks for this video. I get smarterer every day watching obscure historical stuff like this. Congratulations on any YouTube success.

Cooper Rumph

This is good content. Really appreciate the historical footage and that it links with your narration, which is also quite good 👍.

Lazarus

Brilliant video! I've never heard of this system and I appreciate how you manage to cover topics that most people do not do. Thank you.

Excellence In Animation

What an awesome price of history! Thank you for making these videos! I really enjoy them!

Sam m

2y↑1

I would think that would be a huge application for this at the time for air-sea Rescue
not to mention hunting for submarines

Truman Powell

2y↑1

Good description. I read a brief statement about aircraft flying and landing off an LST during the Iwo Jima battle which raised lots of questions to me.

Stargazer

Way into the future I'm planning on making a game that I can best describe as "Fantasy WW1" with both land and sea campaigns.
I will absolutely make a Brody CV class using this system because it is way to cool.
If anyone wants to give name suggestions for the ships, I'm more than happy to hear them.

Sabre Kai

Excellent. I'd never even heard of the Brodie system. it'd make a very cool diorama if you could get the needed drawings.

Joris Koolen

2y↑1

Wow, what an incredible piece of engineering. And glad to see it was actually used at sea, although it seems like it could have been equally useful on land, I'm almost surprised it hasn't found widespread use in places were regular runways are not an option.

ACH

2y↑1

In those places I think they just instead got planes capable of taking off and landing in very short patches of land. Kinda like what they have up in Alaska or in Australia.

Russ MIlham

Brilliant! I'd heard of this system but I've never seen such a comprehensive survey of its history, development, and operation. This needs to be resurrected! I want to master this launch and recovery method. I smell liaison warbird fantasy camp! Kickstarter, here I come!

Reggie Koestoer

2y↑1

Thanks for the video Rex. I never knew this thing even existed, and I've been following military aviation for decades.

David B

2y↑1

Thanks for the video! I'd seen some other references to the system, but this is the most complete presentation I can remember.

Антон Гужва

Very interesting. I wonder if something similar could've been used on the USS Macon or something similar instead of a simple hook

Paul Darke

Another very informative and well put together video.

John Neill

2y↑1

I heard a story in which a Piper Club owner would take off from his backyard by tying a 50 foot rope to a post with the other end making a loop around the wing strut that he held with his hand out of the cockpit window. After making a few circuits the wheels would come off the ground and he would let go of the rope.
I don't know what the landing sequence was.

Erwin de Heus

2y↑1

It looks a bit odd and I can certainly understand pilots' reservations, but it does make sense. Thank you for the video. As always, clear, concise and with the right dose of humour 🙂

pauljs75

I wouldn't be surprised if some aspects of that may have inspired the kinds of trap line recovery systems currently used with some drone aircraft. (They fly below the line or inverted trapeze with a hook on top for an arrested landing.) The idea of having no deck or runway needed still makes sense for light aircraft.

Steve Ball

Absolutely fascinating, you learn something every day!

Christopher Crockett

I'd love to see a video on the Transavia Airtruk! This video was great!

Dan Morris

2y↑10

Huh, I had never heard of this system at all. Thanks for bringing a niche piece of aviation history to me, Rex

Dedischado

This is a fascinating system and I anticipate seeing it on many steampunk airships in the future.

Kommandant Galileo

2y↑1

that is such a great design, shame it never got to be used more.

Avi8

I wonder what this system would've looked like for jet aircraft, especially modern ones like the F-15.

Sigvar

Spectacular stuff. It really is. Necessity is the mother of invention. Though I suppose boredom, could be the stepmother of invention. Thanks for the video.. and the work that went into researching it all!

Mark Holub

It’s not a bad idea for the time. Having the hook above the canopy probably made it easier to line up too.

Angel Arch

omg i have studied naval aviation warfare my entire life and I never heard of this haha :D very cool, thanks for the video!
Maybe in the modern age, it could be used to launch and capture unmanned drones, hmmm. No complaints from robot pilots:)

Rerd

Thank you so much for bringing up this unknown system. I knew about the Brodie system for long time, but never saw actual film footage. Thank you so much. For Aircraft review I want to suggest the Ar 240 and the P61. I am especially interested in the involved targeting "computers" for the remote controlled gunnery systems.

Garry Ferrington

Film footage. Videotape wasn't marketed until 1956.

Rerd

2y↑1

@Garry Ferrington You're right. Film footage. Sorry!

DIREWOLFx75

Well, that was something i had definitely not heard of before. Put the system on a ship that can pull 5-10 kts more and combine with an aircraft tailormade for low takeoff and landing speed and it could probably even be made even more functional.

S'Aarum

43w

This is such an ingenious design. Love it.

Fact Based

Great video. Inflatable planes were my favourite, Goodyear or Firestone made.

Nemo

Very intersting video. I wonder why they didn't use autogyros Kellett KD-1 instead. If you only need a light observation aircraft, the autogyro seems a much better and symple solution. I believe there had been in the 1930s some tests from ships both in the USA and other countries that had been pretty successful

envitech02

Wow! Never heard of Brodie system before. Now I know. Great video!!

Harrison C. Smith

An excellent video.
I didn't know that I needed to know that this system existed. But after you told me I feel like a special spark of knowledge has been bestowed upon my aviation obsessed brain. So thank you.

Adventures with Jacob

I love story like this. The random stuff forgot by all, but was extremely unique and cleaver.

ADvorak

Thank you for shining a light on these obscure, might-have-been and almost there systems, showing weird and wonderful ingenuity.
Had the darn helicopters not taken flight that early …
I could see them being used at outposts where a runway would be hard to build and where helicopters have troubles … but they are strictly lightweight planes only in this iteration.

Though it would be fun to see a Boeing 7x7 using them for take-off and landing.

Stephen Remington

2y↑2

This reminded me of the Skyhook. For anyone not aware one can be seen used in the John Wayne film, The Green Berets. US soldiers in Viet Nam want to extract a man from a jungle-ish area so they use the Skyhook, they sent a micro blimp up vertically with a rope attached, on the ground a man in what looks like a big orange outfit is at the end of the rope, a Luffhead Hercules flies over with a line catcher on the nose which catches the rope and hauls the man in orange up into the air and being pulled along by the plane, looks terrifying!

Cuzgod Loc Famdunbro III

I wonder if this system could have any use with modern drones.

JonnyPhive

This looks like something from a Miyazaki film. Would have fit in to Naussica or Porco Rosso. I could have imagined Air Pirates from Tailspin using something like this too.

JIM the heliophobe

2y↑1

Pretty creative, and also utterly terrifying.

Neville Creativity Mentor

A brilliant idea and excellent narration. NEver knew such a thing existed.

Claude Charley

Thank you very informative and fun to watch I learned something keep up the good work look forward to seeing more of it God bless

Mitchell Miner

Thank you.

I had heard of the system, but never knew how the hooks worked.

Chris Hewitt

2y↑1

Straight forward (but crazy)
I worked at sea for over 30 years but never heard of this.
Amazing

Mary Keesling

This is absolutely fascinating!! Watched it with great interest. Had never heard of these, ever! Even hubby, the true aviation buff! (I'm a mere wannabe!)

G L

You know, a similar system can be adapted for drones. Imagine if you can deploy and recover small to large size drones anywhere and can be set up quickly and wel camouflaged.

Anony Mousse

2y↑1

That's a rather interesting system and I'd never heard of it before. Plus I've learned a new word from you, eventuated.

Paul Searls

Possibly one of the pilot qualifications might have been, "can you swim?" Amazing system and footage.

Shuravi

I think this system would still be useful nowadays for launching/landing some larger drones like Reaper, Bayraktar or russian Orion...

peter blood

My step father owned a Stinson 108 Voyager that we flew all over South Texas. It is a great aircraft. He also had a Cessna 172 that we flew as well. Fun times.

Randy Havard

Well done, never heard of this being talked about by anyone else on YouTube.

Dave

Another excellent informative video! Thanks

Centurion

That was very interesting. I love that kind of video, great work!

Neal Scroggs

2y↑1

3:18 The two airships designed to carry, launch, and recover their own complement of scout fighters were the USS Akron and the USS Macon, both commissioned vessels of the United States Navy. They operated a specially modified version of the Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk that was exclusively used by the Navy. If these airships had proven themselves able to handle stormy conditions, both crashed due to inclement weather, their Sparrowhawks would have flown without conventional landing gear, tying them permanently to their motherships.

Garry Ferrington

2y↑1

Complement.

Michael McGinnis

I believe the British Navy early in the war was catapult launching a small float equipped Fairey aircraft (the Firefly?) for recon and recovering them after a water landing. Pilots needed to land close by - ship captains hated delays an tight maneuvers.

Chilly Billy

2y↑1

Rex, one correction. You said the U.S. Army tried using fighters in air ships. They were in fact Navy air ships and Sparrowhawk fighters.

Oscar

You would think this would be perfect for small drone delivery services in remote locations

grantm

2y↑1

I read a description of the ship-mounted version of this some years ago, can't remember where, I don't think it mentioned the land-based masts at all. Apparently landing at sea was really tricky when the ship was rolling because even a moderate degree of roll translated to a huge amount of vertical movement at the cable. The pilot had to fly a sort of sine wave approach, pitching his aircraft up and down, perfectly timed to match the up and down movement of the cable. Failure to do this meant a very real chance of colliding head-on with the steel derrick or being swatted downwards into the sea by it.

Phil Sharp

This was unknown to me. A fascinating documentary and a very clever system. (I bet Mark Felton is spitting feathers that he hadn't covered this :-) )

Robert Dragoff

You know the old saying…..

Necessity is the mother of invention and WWII was the biggest mother of them all!

Interesting concept, but then those new fangled helicopters took over.

Great video about something I never heard of before.