Guy Alcala wrote:

Hopefully Frijoles or some other current or former Harrier
type can answer this (whatever happened to Cecil Turner?).
Using braking stop it would seem at least theoretically
possible, but I don't know if there were other problems that
prevented it (hot gas re-ingestion/FOD, light on the wheels,
etc).

Not only theoretically but practically possible.

Assuming it is doable and NATOPS allows it, is/was it
done rarely/infrequently/routinely on an LPH/LHA/LHD?

And permitted by NATOPS. After 513's first deployments on LPHs,
the AV-8A was never routinely deployed aboard LPHs as they are
aboard the LHA/LHDs [typically, a 6-aircraft det as part of the
composite helo squadron of the MEU]. "Backing up" was routine,
IME, but generally aircraft movement/spotting was planned such
that it wasn't needed.

I was
just wondering if it were possible to taxi cross-deck and
get lined-up, then backup to maximise T/O run, thus allowing
more a/c to be launched in a short period of time than if it
were necessary to use deck tractors for positioning. Or is
the deck wide enough and the maximum angle of the Harrier's
nosewheel steering gear great enough that it can taxi aft
and then essentially make a U-turn at the aft end of the
deck, wasting little or no T/O run? TIA,

The latter, we called it the "conga line" was the standard
practice. LHA/LHDs are wide enough to do that. Deck runs for
the AV-8A, even for the most restricted engines, was always short
enough to permit a 6-aircraft line-up to come down the starboard
side, make the Uie at the aft end of the flight deck and then
line up starting behind the 450' deck-run marker. Typically, a
55/55 STO would take 250-350', if twenty-mumble year old memory
serves.
--
OJ III
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