Brodie landing system

One of its perceived land-based qualities was that its small size would render it much harder to detect by the enemy than a conventional landing strip.

After a successful demonstration at Moisant Field (now New Orleans International Airport), the system was tested in September 1943 for shipboard use when it was installed on the motor ship City of Dalhart.

Staff Sergeant R. A. Gregory performed ten successful takeoffs and hookups without incident with a Stinson L-5 Sentinel, but those operations were conducted under ideal weather and sea conditions.

[1] The Brodie device was designed to allowed cargo vessels to be inexpensively converted with relatively minor structural changes so that they could launch and recover planes at sea.

Concluding that the device was better suited for fixed installations on land, the Navy program was terminated in favor of CVE escort aircraft carriers that were allocated to carry liaison planes during the planned invasion of Japan.