I have never heard of these experiments, nor can I find any information?
Can anyone enlighten us on these tests photos taken June 45.








Thanks Duggy

I've never heard of this one either. Perhaps it has something to do with preparations for the invasion of Japanese home islands, using every available aircraft to deliver payloads on a vast array of targets simultaneously (?). Consider the SAC B-52's during the cold war, and how they could only take-off with a full load of bombs if they were not fully fueled. They only carried enough fuel to rendezvous with a tanker within about an hour, then top-off once they were at speed. So perhaps this is the WWII version, except instead of fuel, it was bombs (?). The Hellcat would take-off from the CV, fully fueled, and perhaps with long-range drop tanks. Somewhere along the way, the aircraft would pickup their payload, and continue to the target. Navy planes were selected for this operation, since their frames were sturdy enough to withstand the stress of the aircraft's weight during arrested landings; so why not arrest a bomb?

Anyway, that's my theory; but it's only pure speculation. Nice find with those photos. Reminds me of the flying Corvette in 'Con Air'