Here's why it's an aircraft carrier tradition to catapult a pair of boots

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A pair of boots wait to be launched from the flight deck during a boot shoot.
Cmdr. Dennis Metz's boots wait to be launched from the flight deck during a boot shoot.

US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Bill M. Sanders

Watch the new US Navy supercarrier USS John F. Kennedy catapult heavy cars into a river to make sure the warship can handle planes

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The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) is the second ship in the Gerald R. Ford class, the Navy's newest class of nuclear aircraft carriers.
The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) is the second ship in the Gerald R. Ford class, the Navy's newest class of nuclear aircraft carriers.

(U.S. Navy photo illustration courtesy of Newport News Shipbuilding/Released)

I catapulted off the deck of a US aircraft carrier in a largely windowless prop plane the Navy's been flying since the 1960s. It was jarring and intense.

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US Navy personnel perform inspections on our COD flight in Bahrain.
US Navy personnel perform inspections on our COD flight in Bahrain.

Jake Epstein/Business Insider

See the hectic flight deck operations aboard a US Navy aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, where warplane pilots and crews are 'on alerts all the time'

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A fighter jet prepares for takeoff on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
A fighter jet prepares for takeoff on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Jake Epstein/Business Insider

Inside a deployed US Navy carrier strike group's tactical shift to kill Houthi missiles and drones before they ever take flight

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Sailors perform work to a fighter jet on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Sailors perform work to a fighter jet on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Jake Epstein/Business Insider

US Navy aircraft carrier going head-to-head with the Houthis has its planes in the air 'constantly,' strike group commander says

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A fighter jet takes off from the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
A fighter jet takes off from the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Jake Epstein/Business Insider

Britain suffered an embarrassing aircraft carrier malfunction just as China started showing off its new carrier

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China aircraft carrier Fujian
China's third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai during its launch ceremony on June 17, 2022.

Li Tang/VCG via Getty Images

Satellite images show China made an apparent USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier target out in the desert

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Satellite image of a new carrier target in China's Taklamakan Desert.
Satellite image of a new carrier target apparently modeled after the USS Gerald R. Ford in China's Taklamakan Desert, captured January 1, 2024.

Image © Planet Labs PBC

Turkey has a new drone to use with its new drone aircraft carrier, and it's looking to sell it to the rest of the world

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Turkey navy Anadolu Bayraktar TB-2 drone
A Bayraktar TB2 drone and helicopters aboard TCG Anadolu in the Bosphorus in October.

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Britain's Royal Navy says it did what only the US has until now: flown a large drone off the deck of an aircraft carrier

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Royal Navy sailors watch as the Mojave unmanned aircraft lands on HMS Prince of Wales for the first time in history.
Royal Navy sailors watch as the Mojave unmanned aircraft lands on HMS Prince of Wales for the first time in history.

UK Royal Navy

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