The U.S. Navy's efforts to expand its reach at sea led in the early 1930s to the construction of two massive airships, Akron and Macon. The two flying aircraft carriers were home base to the Heavier-Than-Air (HTA) unit, whose single-seat Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawks conducted reconnaissance flights in advance of their floating motherships. The Sparrowhawks, carried within a special hangar in the belly of the beasts, were launched and recovered by an ingenious "trapeze" mechanism that could release or catch the airplanes via a hook projecting from the biplanes' top wing. Rudimentary early versions of the trapeze required pilots with exceptionally steady hands, but modifications introduced by Lieutenant Frederick Trapnell simplified and improved the system (see story, P. 44).
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