330-PSA-63-62 (USN 711034): Wheeling into place, the Navy’s W2F-1 “Hawkeye” prepares for a launch from the new nose to catapult system.   Master Caption:  Nose Tow Catapult System.  The Navy’s WF2-1 “Hawkeye” is the first aircraft to be catapulted with a newly designed nose-tow catapult system. The new system, which recently completed initial trials at the Naval Air Station, Pautuxent, Maryland, is designed to be a speedier and simpler method for launching aircraft.   It will require fewer personnel on the flight deck which in turn will afford a greater degree of flight deck safety than the conventional launching apparatus now in use onboard Navy aircraft carriers.  The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation designed and built both the tow catapult and the aircraft.  Shipboard launching equipment was designed and developed by the Naval Air Engineering Laboratory, Philadelphia.  A Navy decision for accepting the catapult device will follow actual shipboard trials scheduled in the near future.  Photograph released March 8, 1962.  (9/29/2015).
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