There Were Two Ships Named Bon Homme Richard, the Second was an Aircraft Carrier.

When I started my articles about carrier qualification, I did not know it would turn into a five part series. I also didn’t know the attention it wound receive from people in close association with my current position in aviation. So I would like to continue with a somewhat similar article but with a 65 year retrograde in time, and this I am able to do with the magical box called a computer.

What follows has a direct and unique connection to my aeronautical endeavor I am now perpetrating: The day is Saturday, the date is April 19, the year is 1944, the place is Camden New Jersey, the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The occasion is the launching of a new aircraft carrier, CV-31 the USS Bon Homme Richard. I will explain how my flying position has direct connection to this at the end of the article.

Captain John Paul Jones commanded the Frigate Bon Homme Richard, the first ship to bear that name. Google “Bon Homme Richard” and the following sentence appears on several of the sites:

The second Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) was launched 29 April 1944 by New York Navy Yard sponsored by Mrs. J. S. McCain, wife of Vice Adm. McCain, and commissioned 26 November 1944, Captain A. O. Rule, Jr., in command.”

The aircraft in my carrier qualification articles is an F-14, I consider this somewhat of a coincidence that while I was stationed at Chase Field, the F-14 made its first 1 and ½ flights…(crashed on the second flight). At the time the top line fighter was the F-4 Phantom. I will rewind the clock about 60 years to another F-4, the F-4U Corsair…in my mind, this is still a top line fighter…and Navy pilots flew it off the deck of the Bon Homme Richard.

The catapult was not yet invented; you just flew the plane off the deck, the arresting gear “sort of” worked. So here is a computer simulation of a flight of an F-4 Corsair from the Bon Homme Richard (forgive me please, the ship in this simulation is the George Washington…there is only one aircraft carrier program).

The non-catapult take off is not as difficult as the pre-conception of the general public. Consider this; at sea there is 20 knots of wind just about all the time. The ship can add to this relative wind. During flight operations they like to have 40 knots of wind over the deck, this means all the faster the ship has got to go is 20 knots. The WWII aircraft would fly at 90, this means that the plane has only got to get going another 50 knots…watch the History Channel when they have footage of piston prop planes taking off from aircraft carriers, they do not start at the very aft end of the ship. You just pour the coals to it and hope it flies (usually dose) (Oh, the catapult on the computer program will not work with tail wheel aircraft).

I really like the way this ones and zeros F-4U flies on my simulator, very maneuverable, it’s got gobs of power, it will do 380 at sea level, this is one of the planes that I like to fly trough the Grand Canyon.

Back to the boat…you don’t land a piston prop the same way you land a jet. With a jet there is no power reduction and no flair. You literally “hit the deck”…as I have said in a previous article “Ppssheeww-Wwhamm !” The throttle response from a piston engine is fast enough that the LSO will give the plane a “Cut” as it crosses the fantail. There were still such planes in operation while I was training for carrier qualification: The T-28, the S2-F, the A-1.

Here is how I fly this plane; on down wind I run the trim all the way full up, I control the altitude with the power (it takes about 32” for level flight). The program does have a optical landing system but I have never been able to use it, what I do instead is fly the ILS, but I fly it 1 ¾ dots low, this takes 28~29 inches MP, again, hold the glide slope with the power (I do help any pitch changes with the elevator, but primary altitude control is with power). Crossing the fantail I smoothly reduce the power. You will probably crash a couple of times before you learn how to “smoothly reduce the power”.

I said at the start that there is a connection between the Bon Homme Richard and myself, here it is: Note the C.O.’s name: A.O. Rule. The Rules are The Navy Family of Navy Families. A.O. Rule Jr. is the second in this linage; His son is (note present tense) Adrian Ogle Rule III, who also has a son, Adrian Rule IV. Number III goes by A.O. and number IV goes by Adrian (of just “A” as I have heard his father call him).

You read that right, “I have heard his father call him”. A.O. Rule III is Naval Academy Class of 1950, after retiring from the Navy he became involved with manufacturing specialty scientific equipment. He is the President, CEO, and owner of this company headquartered in Chagrin Falls, “Environmental Growth Chambers”. The company owns two planes and I am their pilot. A.O. and/or his son are my passengers on a frequent regular basis.

If you would like to meet him, contact me and this might be able to be arranged.