Maintenance.

This is coolbert:

The more you think about it, the more you wonder WHAT exactly WAS the Navy thinking when someone came up with the concept for the Pogo. That aircraft I have blogged about just a short time ago.

The idea was to make ALL ships of the Navy aircraft carriers. Design an aircraft that could operate off the decks of ALL surface vessels.

Well, this idea would seem to the layman to have merit, but under investigation seems to show a real lack of imagination on the part of the Navy. This is surprising as by the end of World War Two the U.S. Navy had such an abundance of experience with aviation that you would think they WOULD NOT make errors in this area.

Let us suppose that the Pogo HAD become a proven winner [it did not become so].

Was able to take off AND land with ease from the deck of any surface vessel.

And WAS a worthy combat aircraft with superior performance [it was not].

Let us assume that this is the case.

The Pogo STILL would have been a poor idea.

Strictly from the operations and maintenance standpoint, the Pogo would have been a loser. To equip each surface vessel of the navy with the impedimenta just to operate and maintain these aircraft would have been a nightmare. A landing deck would have to be provided. Then space set aside within the surface vessel for fuel tanks to contain aviation gas. And facilities to work on the aircraft INSIDE the ship set up. And a staff of maintenance personnel would have to be added to the crew of the surface vessel. A staff that would not be ordinarily present. You would have had to either refit all existing vessels to accommodate the Pogo, or build new ships specifically for the Pogo. The cost would have been just astronomical.

Maintenance alone on modern combat aircraft is laborious and time consuming AND costly. It must seem at times that A SMALL ARMY of personnel is required to keep just one aircraft up and running and in good working order.

A perfect example of such a combat aircraft is the venerable F-4 Phantom. Designed first in the mid 1950's. Turned out to be a workhorse aircraft for the Air Force and Navy. Was used with great success by the Israelis. From the maintenance standpoint alone, the Phantom posed a challenge.

A maintenance man was required, specially trained, just to keep in working order the two ejection seats on the Phantom. One man for the two ejection seats alone!! I am not even sure what was required to keep the jet engines in working order, or the avionics or the other complex systems on the aircraft!?

Again, what was the Navy thinking when the Pogo was conceived?? Maybe this was the type of thing where so much money was available to the military at the time [1950's], that all sorts of odd and strange concepts could be tried as "experimental". I guess we can be glad nothing ever came of the Pogo. There are lessons to be learned. Perhaps they were learned. Who knows?

coolbert.