The aircraft arresting system is designed to safely bring aircraft to a stop in the event of an emergency
Filmed at Buckley Air Force Base in 2013, the interesting video in this post shows a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet conducting an aircraft arresting system test to certify that the equipment is working properly.
Noteworthy the aircraft arresting system is designed to safely bring aircraft to a stop in the event of an emergency. It is used with the aircraft arresting hook to “catch” the jet.
When an in-motion aircraft develops an emergency, the aircrew has to decide if they need to use the arresting system. If needed, the pilot deploys the aircraft’s hook and lands the plane at least 1,000 feet from the arresting system.
The hook drags on the surface of the runway until it comes in contact with the steel cable. Once the aircraft’s hook captures the cable, the cable rips the nylon cords, holding it flat on the runway, and unravels its attached nylon tapes from storage reels.
As the tapes are unraveled, the reels turn a hydraulic pump that applies pressure to a set of modified brakes which bring the aircraft to a stop.
Instead, when a jet is not using the system to stop drives over the cable, that bounces. If the cable is not held down, it may damage the jet: for this reason, small pieces of nylon rope are used to hold the cable flat on the runway.