{"id":42339,"date":"2017-07-29T12:45:22","date_gmt":"2017-07-29T12:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/07\/29\/emals-works-carrier-ford-completes-first-flight-operations\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:48:24","slug":"emals-works-carrier-ford-completes-first-flight-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/2017\/07\/29\/emals-works-carrier-ford-completes-first-flight-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"EMALS works! Carrier Ford completes first flight operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Navy officials wasted no time putting the newly commissioned aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford and her new flight deck technology to the test \u2014 and put fears to rest about the ship\u2019s new high-tech gear\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship left Norfolk Friday and \u2014 off the Virginia coast \u2014 conducted the ship\u2019s first arrested aircraft landing, or \u201ctrap,\u201d followed 87 minutes later by the the first ever catapult-shot launch, according to a Friday night release from Naval Air Forces Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only did the milestones mark the ship\u2019s first at-sea fixed-wing flight operations, but also the first shipboard test of the two new flight deck systems \u2014 the Advanced Arresting Gear, known as AAG, and Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both systems had been plagued with difficulties in development. But by the end of the afternoon, the ship had accomplished four successful arrested landings and catapult shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\t