The First Time an Airplane Landed on a Ship: the US Navy ship USS Pennsylvania, anchored in San Francisco Bay; from above is Eugene Ely piloting a Curtiss Model D biplane for a landing on a platform constructed on the stern (note sandbags on either side of platform); January 18, 1911.

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mrsvinchenzo1300: I looked at the photo before reading, thought those were lost souls. Sand bags makes this a very cool photo lol

triptyx: The sand bags are joined across the deck with ropes – you have the first arrester cable system there. 🙂

HungryLikeTheWolf99: Landing a plane that doesn’t go very fast isn’t quite as impressive as taking off again. Does anybody know of the plane was able to take off from the ship? Maybe with the ship sailing full speed into a headwind it would have a chance…