Channel: U.S. Military Technology

Category: Science & Technology

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Description: According to Chris Howat’s article,’ The development of Naval Aviation Part 3 – 1917-1918‘ in Edition 58 of Scuttlebutt: the idea of an aircraft carrier with an island and a form of arrester gear was first proposed in 1915 by H.A. Williamson the Flying Officer on the Royal Navy’s seaplane carrier, HMS Ark Royal while serving in the Gallipoli campaign. In his detailed design, he chose to place the island on the starboard side because single-engine piston-engined aircraft naturally swing to the left*** (port). Most engines, then and now, rotate the propeller clockwise from the pilot’s perspective. The torque effect makes the body of the plane twist to port. Pilots have to correct for this particularly on take-off and landing. It made sense therefore for an aircraft on approach to circle in from the left, and one touchdown, if it failed to arrest, to fly off to the left. So Williamson’s design had the island on the starboard side.