James BRODIE -- Portable Airport -- Cable-rigged
alunch-landing apparatus -- Article & 4 US Patents


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**James BRODIE**

**Portable Airport**

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**[James PECK: *Popular
Science* (March 1946) -- Airstrip in the Air](#ps46)**
  
**[US Patent # 2, 435,197 -- Landing and
Launching Apparatus for Aircraft](#2435)**   
**[US Patent # 2,488,050 -- Aircraft
Landing System](#24880)**   
**[US Patent # 2,488,051 -- Aircraft
Landing System](#24881)**   
**[US Patent # 3,163,380 -- Aircraft Landing
Apparatus](#3161)**

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***Popular Science* (
March 1946 )**


**Airstrip in the Air**

**by** **James L H Peck**

***Light  planes come home to roost on a cable
rigged in ships or in wilderness.***

Take four masts about twice the
height of telephone poles and string a few hundred feet of
cable between them, and you have an airport in mid-air on
which an airplane can takeoff and land without touching the
ground. Here is a portable airfield that weighs only 6000
pounds; it can be packed up and carried in another airplane,
dropped by parachute, and set up for business by a 6-man
crew in a couple of hours. With this device and a couple of
outboard booms, any ship can serve as an aircraft carrier.
The cable rig can be strung across a mountain valley or
stream, or installed on the top of a building. It is the
most compact airport ever devised.

This remarkable skyhook was
designed by Capt James H Brodie of Wright Field, formerly of
the Coast Artillery and Transportation Corps, who flies but
holds no AAF pilot rating.

Brodie made the first sketches of
his cable rig early in March 1942, but the national
Inventors Council and the Navy --- to whom the idea was
first submitted --- refused to believe it. It was through
the Army Transportation Corps that Brodie got his chance.

 The Brodie System was first
tested for the enlightenment of unbelievers at New Orleans
in September 1943. This was followed by a sea trial in
December, when the Brodie rig was strung between two long
booms that overhung the sides of the motor ship City of
Dalhart cruising in the Gulf of Mexico. Brodie was later
assigned to Wright Field and provided facilities to develop
further the shoestring airport.

Many postwar uses of the skyhook
are contemplated, including ship-to-shore ferrying of
passengers, mail, and pilots; airport-post office liaison;
installations atop buildings for air commuters and
department store deliveries, setups for forest rangers in
mountainous country; and emergency winter operations
anywhere when regular airports are snowbound.

![](ps1.jpg)![](ps2.jpg)

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**US Patent # 2, 435,197**

**Landing and Launching Apparatus for
Aircraft**

![](2435-1.jpg)  
![](2435-3.jpg)

![](2435-45.jpg)

![](2435-7-10.jpg)  
![](2345-11-15.jpg)

![](2435-15-21.jpg)

![](2435-22-15.jpg)

![](2435-26-30n.jpg)

![](2435-34-41.jpg)

![](2435-38-39.jpg)

![](2435-42-48.jpg)

  


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**US Patent # 2,488,050**

**Aircraft Landing System**

![](2488-1-5.jpg)

![](2488-6.jpg)

![](2488-7-11.jpg)

![](2488-12-14.jpg)

![](2488-13.jpg)![](2488-15.jpg)

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**US Patent # 2,488,051**

**Aircraft Landing System**

![](24881-1-2.jpg)  
![](24881-3.jpg)![](24881-4.jpg)  
![](24881-5.jpg)![](24881-6.jpg)

![](24881-7.jpg)

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