Memory is rather sketchy but here goes. We were at sea [on USS Forrestal] and the aircraft were not aboard. Believe we left port with everyone but had not recovered the fly aboard... or the fly off was over and we had not gone into port yet. I was aboard when they did it and was assigned to shoot 16mm black and white movie film as a back up to all the other stuff being shot. Never had time to take any personal stills. The Air Group was not aboard so I helped out the ship's photo lab.
They repainted the angle deck center line to give the larger aircraft a better reference to avoid the Island. This all took place over several days and it built to a real cliff hanger. The first time the KC-130 got into the pattern and flew low over the angle. This was repeated lower each time for several more times.
Next time the 130 repeated but then did a couple of touch and go's. The next time he came in touched the deck and full reverse pitch and brakes stopping in plenty of room from the end of the angle.
The crew deplaned and hands were shaken and salutes rendered. They moved the plane back to the stern and off they went well airborn before running out of angle deck. [Webmaster's Note: This varies with the Web information (see below). According to that, the take-off was down the length of the deck, with the wing-tip clearing the island by about 15 feet. The only requirement on the KC-130 was that he not roll (lift off) until he cleared the island. This was the reason that the planes were not aboard and consequently, why the landing of larger planes did not evolve into a standard operating procedure.]
They took off and landed several times each time adjusting the weight of the aircraft. They used a KC -130 tanker version and varied the full load to change the weight.
I understand this was done to test the concept of landing large aircraft on a carrier. In the Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH ( was just there as part of the Forrestal reunion) there was mention of landing a U-2 on the Ranger or Kitty Hawk to test the concept. I am sure that was the main purpose of the work to emergency recover U-2's if necessary. I have copies of the Log from the Forrestal and will send them along if I find them.
John Sees
Addendum: John provided the following clarifications: "I took 16 mm black and white for the Forrestal Photo lab's records. There was a team that came aboard from somewhere who did the main coverage. The normal flight deck crew of the Forrestal photo lab did the TV video and the launch coverage as they would do on any Launch/recovery. I was extra cause the aircraft were not aboard so the Photo Officer had me take back-up black and white footage. That one landing sequence does look like it was black and white but it was a dull day so hard to tell. I don't know what the others were shooting so they many have official footage in both color and black and white. I was something to see the Herc come to a stop on Forrestal because at that point they were committed to the program."
