Drag Racing a Lamborghini Off the Flight Deck

Welcome aboard. Today, we're on the pack flight deck of the United States Ship Theodore Roosevelt, aka CBN-71, the Rough Rider, or the Big Stick. We're in the cockpit of an E-18G Growler, which is what I call an upgraded version of an FAA-18 Foxtrot Super Hornet. The ship's in the Northern Arabian Gulf, and we're making a little steam, getting ready to start launches and jets. You can see our director at our left, 11 o'clock, telling us to hold our position. As you hear a jet on Cat 2, which is the inboard bow catapult, come up on the power. Listen. Can you hear it? Flying Navy. We've got a couple things going on. In the top left corner of the screen, you can see how many jets we've launched so far. Right now, the answer is one. And below that is the amount of time that's elapsed since the first launch. I get asked all the time, how long does it actually take to launch a handful of jets off the carrier? Well, stick around to find out. Okay, our director's telling us to release our brakes and to come forward. Coming forward. Now right turn. Coming right. Other director's signaling right. Now look into my right. You can't quite see our new director. He's just behind my helmet. As I check into the right and approach the jet blast deflector for Catapult 2. A little more right turn. As you see a jet go off the waist, no big deal. Put it on the board. That's two. As we creep forward towards the JVD, a little more. Director's on my right side. Coming forward a little more. And stop. Double signature move, no big deal. Now I'm just checking left and checking right to see what's going on. All right, as we sit here for a minute, let's engage in a deep thought exercise. We all know the Growler's fast, but how fast is it really? If we were to compare the acceleration of a Growler on a Catapult to say, I don't know, a supercar, who would win? Who would be the first off the bow? Let's figure this out by comparing the acceleration in the Catapult launch you're about to see to the firewall acceleration of the fastest Lamborghini ever made, the Veneno. The Veneno's max speed is 221 miles an hour. It can go zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds. It costs about $10 million and it has a massive V12 engine. That's one heck of a car. The Growler, on the other hand, has a max speed of around 1,190 miles an hour and is powered by two F14-GE400 afterburning motors that produce a combined thrust of over 44,000 pounds. No doubt the Growler's fast, but how fast is it on the flight deck? Catapult 2, which we're about to line up on, is 306 feet or 99 meters on a Nimbus-class carrier. If a Veneno was lined up right next to the Growler and we launched at the same time, who would get off the bow first? Well, let's find out. Let's put another tally on the board for the catapult launch you just saw off the nose. That makes four. Alright, it's our turn on Cat 2 now, but you can see there's a little bit of a problem. If you look right off our nose, kind of just beyond the steam bath, you can see a director signaling a Super Hornet telling him to come forward. That Super Hornet's parked near the end of Catapult 1. And you can see Catapult 1, which is the outboard bow catapult, is undergoing a bit of maintenance today. So the handler's chosen to put a bunch of jets on and near the catapult, so he can maximize all available space on the flight deck. For us, this is normal. And this is exactly why carriers have four catapults. To maximize the amount of aircraft we can get airborne at once, and to provide redundancy in the case of a casualty like we had today. New aircraft carriers only have three wires, but they still have four catapults. No big deal. So you can see as we pass the three-minute mark, we've got four jets airborne, with only three catapults. If Cat 1 were available for us today, there would be another launch or two on the board. So as that FAA-18 Echo makes its way down the catapult, going the wrong way, the director will tell him to make a left turn, and another little left turn, as he slowly passes by our starboard side towards the jet blast deflector for Catapult 1, which you can see on the right side of my helmet. It looks like a big, shiny panel on the flight deck. That's what the JBD looks like when it's down. Okay, his director's keeping him coming. A little more. And now he's just about out of our way. Time to get moving. The plan is for us to launch first, and for him to follow. Okay, the director says come forward. You can see him waving his hands now. As we move forward. Coming forward. Now he passes off to the director that's on the catapult. Coming forward. Coming forward. A lot of steam. Real slow now. Now it's time to turn right. More right turn. More right turn. And stop. Bring it forward. A little left. Nice and slow. As the other jet goes off the waist. Coming forward. Coming forward. A little more. And stop. The launch bar goes down. Signature move. No big deal. Still got my lucky pen. And now we're just waiting on the topside petty officer to hook the hold back bar up to the nose gear. And then we'll push our launch bar up the nose gear launch track towards the shuttle. Topside's just about done. A little leg squeeze. No big deal. Just trying to improve the circulation. Okay, we're coming forward. Coming forward. As we slowly bring our launch bar up to the shuttle. And stop. And now we wait. We're getting ready to go into tension. And that's when we bring our launch bar over the shuttle. And the shuttle hooks it so it can launch it off the flight deck. Here it comes. It says come forward. A little more. A little more. You see me clench. I'm holding the brakes. Just waiting on the tension hand signal from the director to release the brakes. There it was. That little jolt was the catapult going into tension. And now my feet are off the brakes. So my parking brake is in. And now the director's passed control over to the shooter. And the shooter says run it up. There he is. Both throttles come up to mil and wiping out the flight controls. Looking at the engines. The hides. Everything looks good. Flight control system looks good. No exits. No blends. Hands salute. Head goes back. And we wait. And now on the catwalk at our left at 11 o'clock you can see the deck edge operator with his hands up in the air. Look left. Look right. Push the button. Fly Navy. As I clean up the jet and start my clearing turn. Signature move. No big deal. You can see that the boat launched six jets. Over 5 minutes and 40 seconds. With only three catapults. Not bad. Now let's watch that cat shot one more time in slo-mo. While I break down the results. And see who won the race. In the cat shot you saw. We went from a dead stop to 175 miles an hour. In 2.9 seconds. Coincidentally. 2.9 seconds is the amount of time it takes the Veneno to go from 0 to 60. CHAT GPT figured out. That the distance the Veneno traveled. When going from 0 to 60. Is 127 feet. Since the catapult is 306 feet long. That's just less than half way. So as the Growler gets off the deck. The Veneno is approaching the half way point. On the catapult. Good luck with that clearing turn. No doubt the Veneno is fast. But it sure is nice having afterburners. Cheers. Well guys if you enjoyed the jam today. Please like, leave a comment and subscribe. And thank you for your continued support for this channel. Want more Growler Jams? See ya.