Tailhook

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Tailhook on an E-1B Tracer

A tailhook, also arresting hook or arrestor hook, is a device attached to the empennage (rear) of an aircraft. It is used to achieve rapid deceleration after landing or to abort a takeoff.

Description

The tailhook is a strong metal bar, with its free end flattened out, thickened somewhat, and fashioned into a claw-like hook.

Aircraft land on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier on a short "landing area", towards the aft end of the ship. A number (usually four) of very greasy and very strong thick flexible cables called arrestor cables, "arresting wires" or "cross deck pendants" are stretched across the landing area. When an aircraft lands properly, the tailhook should catch one of the cables and the cable will transfer the energy of the aircraft, through a "purchase cable," to the belowdecks arresting gear engines, stopping the aircraft. Both the hook and cables have to be very strong: jet aircraft land on carriers just above stall speed. Once contact is made with the deck, the pilot advances the throttle(s) to the full military setting to generate enough available power in the event of a "bolter" (where the hook fails to catch any of the cross-deck pendants).^[1]

The term "hooked" is sometimes used to describe aircraft fitted with a tailhook. "Trapped" is often-used slang for an arrested landing. An aircraft which misses a landing by failing to catch the arresting cables is said to have "boltered." Occasionally, the tailhook bounces over one or more of the wires, resulting in a "hook skip bolter."^{[citation needed]}

Land-based tailhooks

Most land-based fighters also have tailhooks. In case of a brake malfunction, an aborted takeoff, a tire explosion, or a related problem, a tailhook can stop the aircraft in a departure-end or approach-end cable arrestment.^[2] Since it is an emergency equipment, the tailhook is usually deployed with nitrogen pressure instead of using the aircraft's hydraulic system.^[3]

The presence of a tailhook is not evidence of an aircraft's carrier-operations ability as land-based aircraft landing gear and tailhooks are not strong enough to absorb the impact of a carrier landing.^[4]

Gallery

Tail hooks

Detail of a tailhook.	F/A-18E Super Hornet with hook, from below.	FH1 Phantom with tail hook down	Tailhook down on an A4D approaching its ship for recovery
Super Etendard with V-shaped tail hook.

Landings on carrier

Landing of a Fairey 3F on HMS Furious in the 1930's	F-4 Phantom lands on USS John F. Kennedy	F/A-18 on USS John C. Stennis	A6 Intruder
A successfully landed F/A-18. Note the engines are at full throttle.	F/A-18 successful landing	A missed landing (bolter).	A USAF F-16 hooks an arresting cable during a test at Shaw Air Force Base.

See also

United States Navy portal

• Naval aviation
• Modern US Navy carrier air operations
• Carrier-based aircraft
• List of military aircraft of the United States (naval) / List of US Naval aircraft
• United States Naval Aviator
• United States Marine Corps Aviation
• Military aviation
• NATOPS
• Arresting gear

References

• United States Air Force. [1]. Guide To Mobile Aircraft Arresting System Installation. Retrieved on 3 November 2007.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tail hook

• Aircraft carriers of the USA Navy