page_title: Optical landing system
section_title: Mirror landing aid
hierarchical_section_title: Optical landing system / Mirror landing aid
caption_attribution_description: 4 Trackers of 816 squadron fly past HMAS Melbourne. In this photograoph, the aircraft are visible just above the mirror landing aid. The 4 orange lights at the left of the photo are part of the set of lights projected into the mirror to provide glideslope information for approaching when landing on the carrier.
context_page_description: An optical landing system is used to give glidepath information to pilots in the terminal phase of landing on an aircraft carrier. From the beginning of aircraft landing on ships in the 1920s to the introduction of OLSs, pilots relied solely on their visual perception of the landing area and the aid of the Landing Signal Officer. LSOs used coloured flags, cloth paddles and lighted wands. The OLS was developed after World War II by the British and was deployed on U.S. Navy carriers from 1955. In its developed form, the OLS consists of a horizontal row of green lights, used as a reference, and a column of vertical lights. The vertical lights signal whether the aircraft is too high, too low, or at the correct altitude as the pilot descends the glide slope towards the carrier's deck. Other lights give various commands and can be used to require the pilot to abort the landing and "go around." The OLS remains under control of the LSO, who can also communicate with the pilot via radio.
context_section_description: The first OLS was the mirror landing aid, one of several British inventions made after the Second World War revolutionising the design of aircraft carriers. The others were the steam catapult and the angled flight deck. The Mirror Landing Aid was invented by Nicholas Goodhart. It was tested on the carriers HMS Illustrious and HMS Indomitable before being introduced on British carriers in 1954 and on US carriers in 1955.
  The mirror landing aid was a gyroscopically-controlled concave mirror on the port side of the flight deck. On either side of the mirror was a line of green coloured "datum lights". A bright orange "source" light was shone into the mirror creating the "ball" (or "meatball" in later USN parlance) which could be seen by the aviator who was about to land. The position of the ball compared to the datum lights indicated the aircraft's position in relation to the desired glidepath: if the ball was above the datum, the plane was high; below the datum, the plane was low; between the datum, the plane was on glidepath. The gyro stabilisation compensated for much of the movement of the flight deck due to the sea, giving a constant glidepath.
  Initially, the device was thought able to allow the pilot to land without direction from the LSO. However, accident rates actually increased upon the system's initial introduction, so the current system of including the LSO was developed. This development, along with the others mentioned, contributed to the US carrier landing accident rate plummeting from 35 per 10,000 landings in 1954 to 7 per 10,000 landings in 1957.
  The LSO, who is a specially qualified and experienced Navy pilot, provides additional input to the pilot via radios, advising of power requirements, position relative to glide path and centerline. The LSO can also use a combination of lights attached to the OLS to indicate "go around" using the bright red, flashing wave off lights. Additional signals, such as "cleared to land", "add power", or "divert" can be signaled using with a row of green "cut" lights or a combination thereof.
caption: The rear of the mirror landing aid of HMAS Melbourne. The datum lamps and the two large "wave off" lamps are clearly visible as are, at the left of the photo, four of the orange lamps projected into the mirror to give the "ball".
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