Hey Bill,
The Kitty Hawk had it's own engine test cell located on the fan tail. They would rebuild engines on the ship and test them back there lashed to the ship with the exhaust facing sternward. We used to joke about the ship moving faster those days and having a jet propelled carrier. The ship never did get airborne though.
The squadron crews would have engine sound wars when multiple engines were being tested. Our TRIM PAD, as it were, was on the flight deck near and above the engine test cell at the round down. Of course, any plane parked on a carrier deck had at minimum 6 chains holding it the deck, and on the flight deck the minimum was 12 (which the plane captain carried when the plane was in motion). But, that's where they would run them up after engine changes to test them. I never thought they were as loud back there as waiting on the cat, though. It's the orientation to the exhaust, I think. All the jet engines used on the carrier had similar test procedures and were run up on the ship. We had A3s, A5s, A6s, A7s, and F4s. The F4s were certainly the loudest. Pretty much all of them could be heard below decks, and certianly in the sleeping quarters. We learned, eventually, to sleep during all the noise they could produce, including cat firing, and arresting operations. Did you know? When the F4's land, they hit full military and AB when the wheels hit the deck?
One of the differences between Air Force and Navy plane variants was that of self start capability. At least during the era I was involved. Navy planes had to have that huffer. The Air Force planes could start that way, too, I'm sure. But, they had a means to get going without it, as well. Must have been some kind of a weight penalty for that. I was never privy to the exact reasoning behind that design. But, I never saw a Navy F4, A6, or A7 in 1970-72 start without a huffer. I was in an A7 quadron. The Navy A7Es could not be started without a huffer, or a dive from altitude. But, an A7D (Air Force variant of the Corsair II) could self start on the ramp all by its lonesome.
Do these qualify as war stories?
