When you read about archaeology, historical engineering, and catapults, you don’t expect the WW2 period to be extremely relevant, but expectations are not always accurate:
The British designed catapults to launch airplanes based on work started in 1938 before the War. The catapults did not work well enough to be used for several reasons including the amplified effects of variable wind resistance that would have made it extremely tough for the pilots to stabilize the aircraft and would have been extremely disorienting for the pilots. As a result, the catapults were not actually ever used.
Thanks for sharing, this makes sense. On Carriers catapults are useful to pick up take off speed fast. In WW2 Carriers had to turn into the wind to launch and early carriers like the Hosho could not even launch planes when there was too little wind. (even at max speed).
So it makes lot of sense to use catapults but it was too early and too difficult but still worth exploring. As it COULD have worked.
