Re 2000 Katapult

[Red Admiral]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/red_admiral/re2000Cat.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/red_admiral/re2000Catb.jpg

These are pictures of a Re 2000 on the stern of Vittorio Veneto. Can anyone tell me what sort of catapult it is please? Explosive seems most likely, but one source says steam.

Danke

[t-geronimo]

Hi Red Admiral!

First of all welcome here in the forum!

To your question:
Breyer writes that the catapults were pneumatic ones. It was 26,30 m long and was able to start planes up to 5000 kg with 36 m/sec up to 42 degrees to each direction.

Here is another link:
http://www.regiamarina.net/arsenals/planes_it/naval_aviation/naval_aviation_us.htm

But mayby some guys here having Garzke & Dulin can confirm this.

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

the Italian catapult was called : Gagnotto ( design 1935 ) built by the  '' Cantieri Navali Riuniti dell'Adriatico  - Trieste ''.

It was powered by compressed-air.

You can verify here in :

http://www.associazionenavemuseovittoriovenetocimeliostorico.it/storia_veneto/corazzata_2.htm

and even  buy the  original drawings here in :

http://www.anb-online.org/page_info.php?products_id=1722

Many did not know that the Italian battleships  had a fighter on board  able to  take off,  fight against attacking torpedo bombers and than land on a normal airport  in Italy.

I found the idea pretty smart,  and always wondered why  on board big ships like Bismarck or Tirpitz  they did not  think about something similar  as there were 6 Arado 196   , .. so lots of room available to change a couple of them with  ME 109, .. or later FW 190.

Addittional fuel capacity, .. foldable wings,.. and there you go.  

Italian warships had  an easier solution as the catapult was back, lots of room and no need of foldable wings, ...  just easy.

                       Ciao  Antonio  

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Red Admiral and all,

by the way,   the 2 photos you showed are not taken on board  the  Vittorio Veneto battleship.

Those 2 photos are taken on the  experiment ship ' G. Miraglia ' as the  catapult is deep on the deck and pointing to the stern out of the ship.

If you compare  the catapult  with the ones showed on T-Geronimo link  you can evaluate it and find the confirmation.

The second  photo  according to some Italian experts has been  ''retouched''  with the white cloud.

There was an early version of the  Gagnotto catapult with explosive, but due  to her poor performances and realiability was substituted with the compressed-air version.
On 1942 when those photos were taken the G. Miraglia was equipped only with a compessed-air one.

But  that catapult do not create any white cloud,  as you can see also on the very beautiful  photo  really taken on Vittorio Veneto  on T-Geronimo link.
That photo shows the Reggiane RE 2000 fighter just leaving the  air compressed catapult on Vittorio Veneto and there is no white cloud.

Hope this helps.
       
                               Ciao  Antonio  

[Red Admiral]

Thanks Antonio.

I must say that it didn't look exactly like Vittorio Veneto's stern, but I couldn't see a likeness to Giuseppe Miraglia either.

That was what was confusing me. On other photos there is no white cloud, but on this one there is for some reason. It could be digitally redone, but I'm not sure on that.

Gavin