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by boarnoah 1486 days ago
Aircraft carriers use a red, green and yellow laser to assist with lining up for the center line of the landing deck area.

Flashing to indicate how much of a correction needs to be made and turning yellow once on center line.

Incidentally I couldn't find much information on this "Long range laser lineup" outside of DCS where I've heard of this first, a bit odd considering the other landing system for glide slope is fairly well documented.
2 comments
HPsquared 1486 days ago
Glide slope on a ship will be complicated by the constant pitching on the waves, so the system will need to gimbal somehow. Might as well have an active system that tracks the plane directly.

Perhaps laser is also good to reduce the visible signature of the ship, the fewer lights the better. Or maybe it's just brighter for the pilots.

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mrguyorama 1486 days ago
I have not heard of a "laser" based system. I know of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_landing_system but maybe that's legacy now?
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boarnoah 1485 days ago
Keep in mind my knowledge almost entirely comes out of DCS, a combat flight simulator game.

> maybe that's legacy now

No as far as I'm aware it continues to be a thing, to assist in keeping on glidepath.

The lineup system is for aligning to center line (horizontally relative to carrier's deck) from a distance. I did find it odd that there is barely any mention of it outside some internet forums, the closest to an authoritative source I found was this https://www.cnatra.navy.mil/local/docs/pat-pubs/P-816.pdf (see Page 24)

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