General Atomics’ Advanced Arresting Gear Completes First Fly-in Aircraft Recovery

General Atomics’ Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) system has completed the first fly-in aircraft recovery of an F/A-18E Super Hornet.

The demonstration was conducted on October 13, 2016 at the Runway Arrested Landing Site (RALS) at Joint base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The F/A-18E fly-in recovery follows more than 200 successful roll-in test arrestments at the site since March, and more than 1,300 dead-load arrestments, the company said in a statement Friday.

Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS said, “We’re tracking to a very aggressive testing schedule, and this fly-in recovery marks a major step toward AAG readiness for on-board testing on the Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78).”

AAG is a turbo-electric system designed for controlled and reliable deceleration of aircraft recovery operations on carriers. AAG is installed on-board CVN 78 along with the GA-EMS Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which uses electromagnetic technology to launch aircraft from the deck of naval aircraft carriers. EMALS has successfully completed system testing on CVN 78.

Andy Gibbs, AAG chief engineer at GA-EMS said, “We’re collecting data to support the development of an Aircraft Recovery Bulletin, a critical step toward arresting the aircraft on CVN 78.”