The aviation catapult has replaced the battleship’s big gun as the sharp end of American naval power. In 2.5 seconds a modern steam catapult can accelerate a 78,000-pound airplane, which would otherwise require a quarter-mile for takeoff, to 160 mph within 300 feet. Using a ship’s four catapults, a well-trained crew can launch two aircraft and land one every 37 seconds in daylight. But disable an aircraft carrier’s catapults, and the $4.5 billion, 105,500-ton behemoth becomes an impotent liability. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this device is that it’s a century old. And most of its current features were present at the very beginning.

The need to accelerate aircraft quickly at takeoff has been a problem since the early days of heavier-than-air flight research. On January 8, 1894, a decade before the Wright brothers’ first powered flight, two of America’s leading scientists watched workmen hoist a 10-pound aircraft model to the top of a framework 25 feet above the Potomac River. With Alexander Graham Bell looking on, Samuel Pierpont Langley, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was expecting to take a historic step forward in his attempt to build a powered man-carrying airplane. When its twin steam-driven propellers reached 600 rpm, Langley gave the signal for the model’s release. “Aerodrome No. 4” splashed straight into the river.

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