GoPro footage of French Aircraft Carrier Flight Deck Operations

January 6, 2015 Aircraft Carriers

David Cenciotti

Blue Water Ops. French style.

Few days ago we posted an interesting footage, filmed with GoPro cameras, showing launches and recoveries from the Catapult Topside Petty Officer point of view.

After reading our article, many readers pointed us to the video below, which shows, more or less, the same kind of operations aboard the 38,000 ton, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle.

The clip lets you observe blue water operations of French Navy Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard, Dassault Rafale M and E‑2C Hawkeye aircraft from the privileged eye of flight deck operators.

Both the French and American aircraft carriers use the same kind of catapult (even thought the French Navy’s Super Étendards are launched with a wire attached to the bottom of the fuselage instead of a cat shuttle attached to the nose gear). That’s why, in the past French Rafale combat planes have operated from USS Truman and F/A-18E Super Hornets have operated from the U.S. flattop demonstrating interoperability between allied navies.

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Kushil says:

January 7, 2015 at 2:55 AM

Apart from U.S and France, what other major western allies use Carriers..
- Cody3/75 says:
  
  January 14, 2015 at 5:19 AM
  
  Nobody else uses catapult carriers. Britain, India, Russia(used to), China, and a few others use ski jump carriers of various size and capability. None of them rival France. None of them hold a candle to even one US carrier which is 70% more capable than the French carriers (Foch and Charles De Gaulle).
françois says:

January 7, 2015 at 7:37 AM

All the pilots of French Navy make their final formation in USA with US Navy
Lule says:

January 8, 2015 at 9:10 AM

too much american style bulls*eet!
Hauptmann Wesreidau says:

January 22, 2015 at 12:11 PM

Fantastique! Why the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm didn’t fight to maintain this capability I will never know. Breaks my heart.
Thomas Videbæk says:

January 25, 2015 at 6:25 PM

Lately? Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, C.A.R., and now Iraq/Syria.