What are the rectangles adjacent to the arresting gear on Aircraft Carriers? Are they service hatches?
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Sign up to join this communityWhat are the rectangles adjacent to the arresting gear on Aircraft Carriers? Are they service hatches?
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The rectangles are called impact pads. The ends of the arresting cable tend to snap back onto the deck after an aircraft catches it. The replaceable polyurethane pads protect the carrier deck from the cables.
Source: NAVEDTRA 14310
As Michael Hall points out, the section of cable across the deck is called the cross deck pendant. Since it takes such a beating, it has to be replaced every 125 arrests. The rest of the cable goes below deck into the arresting engine that uses a combination of hydraulics and pneumatics to absorb the energy. This is the purchase cable and only needs to be replaced after around 1400 arrests.
It's much faster and cheaper to just replace the cross deck pendant, so it's attached to the purchase cable with terminal fittings. These heavy fittings are what can cause the most damage and the pads are located where they most often strike the deck.
Source: NAVEDTRA 14310
Good answer by fooot already, but to add some detail, it isn't the cables themselves as much as this beefy steel "knuckle" connecting the more readily replacable cross-deck pendant to the much longer below deck cables that run through the sheaves.
Each trap is like cracking a whip, sending a ripple outwards from the hook point, that hammers this thing into the steel deck with quite a bit of force. The replaceable impact pads reduce permanent damage to the underlying structure, and slightly dampen the harshness of the noise below decks.