Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
This is a US Navy hovercraft base at Camp Pendelton, California. You can see some of the hovercraft parked up, and there is a massive ramp that goes down to the beach for them to get straight out onto the water. The giant ‘GO NAVY’ slogan on the tarmac seems to be a common feature on lots of these bases. I found this article about the base complete with a cool photo of a few hovercraft on the tarmac.
Thanks: Phil & Ken Adams
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Link to specific places either as a Google Maps page or a decimal latitude and longitude written like this: lat/lng:55.949400,-3.200000.
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If you follow the coastline northwest a bit, you come to first what looks like a very short runway and helipad. Could this be for practicing short take-off/landings in Harrier jump jets? Slightly further up is what looks to be a landing deck of a marine amphibious assault ship, again possible for practicing landings and takeoffs. Any thoughts?
What, no entry in the ‘Large Type’ category?
And is this where the Navy does it SEAL training?
That pad north of the hover craft base is used for helicopters to practice their ship landings. The clif there is about the height of an aircraft carrier. Don’t know if the Harriers use that pad since it is made out of temporary metal matting; the same stuff they made temporary fields out of in WWII. The heat from the Harrier and jet blast can be an issue.
Mike
PS: The Navy SEALS train near San Diego, on Coronodo Island.
Thanks for pointing that out caknuck, I’ve added it to to Large Type aswell.
I didn’t even know we used hovercraft. Are they still used at all or are they just for show anymore?
Govinator, those are called “LCACs” in military-speak, pronounced “ell-kack”. It stands for “Landing Craft, Air Cushion”. They are high-speed, amphibious landing craft used to transfer troops, weapons systems and cargo from ships to shore, and they are indeed still used. They have them here in Panama City, Florida at the Navy Coastal Systems Station and are seen operating on St. Andrew Bay occasionally.
Here’s a web page with details and photos: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/lcac.htm
- Sharky
Looks like more of the same here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
It’s spelled Governator