Clearing the decks
On the deck of an aircraft carrier, where up to 60 aircraft are crammed into 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares), real estate is at a premium. While aircraft directors wave fighter jets out of the landing strip, maintenance crews work at the ship’s edges, refueling parked planes and repairing deck machinery. Keeping track of all the pieces — and keeping everyone safe — can seem like a game of high-stakes chess. In fact, the main planning tool used to choreograph a flight deck looks a bit like a board game. To position aircraft and plan out flight schedules, Naval officers typically gather around a metal table, dubbed the “Ouija board.” These “deck handlers” move around small metal plane-shaped cutouts on a diagram of the flight deck that’s etched into the tabletop. Color-coded thumbtacks and pins, placed on cutouts, identify planes that need refueling or maintenance. Missy Cummings and student Jason Ryan...