Ok, so it was considered good enough? (This quote made it seem like the testing had failed and they were giving up: "The program decides to officially stop trying to chase the off-center arrrestments and wire only arrestments.)
Also, I still don't understand what wire-only arrestments are. Aren't all arrestments wire only?
Thanks.
I suppose that hard landing might have, in some ways, replicated the hard slam-down this would produce. Author, is that the case? Was the hard landing judged to have been a decent proxy for the wire-only arrestment?
I just don’t think anyone had the risk appetite to chance a test asset against a very difficult to achieve test point.
Program management does not take decisions like this by themselves.
Kind of both: it was too dangerous to test a wider range of parameters, and the testing was therefore "successful" because it was crystal clear that going beyond the point where they had the problem would not be safe. So in this case "giving up"/stopping and "determining the limits of the landing envelope, were reached at the same time.
Based on other comments (or re-reading the authors comment carefully), it turns out that "wire only" mean that the wire catches before the wheels touch the ground. (This puts additional strain on the wire and airframe.)
There are brakes on the wheels (that can slow a plane moving at flying speed)? That's a lot of force. I assumed the wheels merely prevent friction between the plane body and the deck, and the engines and control surfaces, and the wire, did the braking.
If the cross-deck pendant snaps, the engines don't have time to throttle up before you go over the edge. And of course if you don't catch a wire you really don't want to be trying to stop.
No reverse thrust in carrier aircraft.