What do you do if you don’t have an aircraft carrier, you are at sea and need an observation airplane to take a look up ahead to see “what’s out there”? That’s easy (or so it seemed) to a Captain of the United States Air Force, James H. Brodie that devised a method of launching and recovering a light observation aircraft from a ship filed with the U.S. Patent office on October 4, 1944.
His idea was that you could use existing ships and aircraft rigged with a cable system to launch and recover aircraft at sea. The system could also be used in areas of rugged terrain where no suitable landing fields existed.
The idea essentially was to attach an hook like apparatus to an airplane so that it could use a length of cable as a makeshift runway. Later when it was time to land the pilot would fly towards a netlike sling hung from the cable and catch it with the hook attached to the airplane. Brake force was applied gradually to the sling, reaching a maximum after the plane traveled about 50′ along the cableway. Without wind, an average lightplane took off from the cable in 400′, with wind, it was off in 200′.
Brodie began his tests on land in April 1943 in New Orleans and in late August 1943 Lt C C Wheeler made the first takeoff. Later on September 3, 1943 Maj James D Kemp made the first full circuit flight. By December, a series of landings and takeoffs were successfully made from a system installed on the cargo ship, “City of Dalhart” with a Stinson L-5. Combat use was limited to one ship, the system proved its feasibility at Saipan and Okinawa, but only eight of 25 contracted LSTs were so equipped when the war ended in 1945. Seemingly practical, and definitely proven, the idea never played out.
Here is a video showing the Brodie System in action aboard a ship: