This video takes us on a journey on American aircraft carriers, spanning eras from World War II to the end of the 20th century. Aircraft carriers are objects of extreme responsibility for all those involved. But sometimes, even they are the site of unusual events: embarrassing tales, avant-garde experiments, and stories of rescue. Today, we’ll explore some of these stories. • The Doolittle Raid – the famous daring attack on Japan by a group of B-25 Mitchell bombers launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet. • An embarrassing incident that occurred during the Battle of the Coral Sea, when a group of Japanese bombers, mistaking the enemy fleet for their own, almost landed on an American aircraft carrier. • The history of the American fleet’s voyage with a group of Douglas R4D transport aircraft (naval relatives of the Douglas DC-3) on an aircraft carrier to the shores of Antarctica in 1946. • The crazy story of Operation Sandy, the experimental launch of a V-2 rocket from the deck of the aircraft carrier Midway in 1947. • The famous tests of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. • Operation Wale Tale, with similar tests of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane on the decks of several aircraft carriers at once. Moreover, with a real reconnaissance mission to monitor French nuclear tests in the 1960s. • And, of course, the sweet story of the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog that carried a Vietnamese pilot and his family to the aircraft carrier USS Midway during the tail end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Timings: 00:00 – Stranger things on the deck 00:38 – B-25 and the Doolittle Raid 05:11 – Wrong place to land 07:24 – R4D in Antarctica 08:58 – Launching a V-2 from an aircraft carrier 11:02 – C-130 Hercules on deck 12:54 – U-2 Dragon Lady and an Aircraft Carrier 16:16 – Bird Dog and an Aircraft Carrier
