福特号的电磁弹射演示又演砸了

NEWPORT NEWS, VA. — The failure of what was to be the first public shot of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system aboard the carrier Gerald R Ford did little to help the embattled catapult's reputation.

Officials were quick to call this a "minor setback" and express confidence that EMALS will be operational as scheduled.

On Tuesday morning, officials placed a weighted sled at the end of Ford's Catapult 1. After a successful dry run, the Navy crew set up for one more test. The catapult officer gave the command, the shooter pressed the launch button inside the cab, and … nothing. The exact problem was not immediately clear. Matt Mulherin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding, said some of the circuitry was showing faults. The carrier's skipper categorized it as a "communication-type issue of components talking together."

"We would have liked to have seen this shoot today," said Capt. John Meier, Ford's commanding officer. "I'm certainly not disappointed in where we are in the test program. … I think that what we have today is a minor setback to the test program. We will get back on track [and] our team knows that. As a matter of fact, you don't see them around right now because they are getting after it."

Meier's goal was to fix any issues that had occurred in recent testing by later in the afternoon. Another 20 testing days with weighted sleds remain aboard Ford. The planned operational launch of aircraft is set for 2017.

Shipbuilders and the crew have launched 15 sleds of varying weights and speeds from Catapult 2 in three days. Similar issues were seen amid those successful launches, Meier said.

"As you go through the testing program, it is not uncommon to have hiccups, if you will, or minor discrepancies," he said. "We have seen nothing that I would consider a major test interruption whatsoever."

The team netted 10 consecutive shots once the issues on Cat 2 were corrected.

"This is why you run a test program. You find the faults, you fix them," Mulherin said. "Some of this is new hardware that wasn't fully tested at the site in Lakehurst [N.J.]. At the end of the day we will deliver a product that is fully spec compliant, that meets all the captain's demands, and that is reliable. … But today isn't going to be the day that we can demonstrate that."

The EMALS catapult replaced the steam-powered catapult system, and has had its share of problems. By the time Aircraft Compatibility Tests ended in April 2014, and more than 3,000 dead-load launches were added to the mix, EMALS had a reliability rate of 240 launches without a failure. That was far short of the 1,250 launches the system should have been hitting at that point.

EMALS is expected to reduce stress on aircraft during takeoff, thus expanding their service lives. It is designed to increase sortie generation rate by as much as 25 percent and can launch a wider variety of weights in varying wind conditions. This includes lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles that cannot be launched with a steam catapult.