Okay....got a reply from my cousin the Super Bug driver. She says that if you had an Essex, then any aircraft landing will need a tailhook. Period. A Forrestal-class or larger, a WW II warbird, or a light aircraft like a Cessna 182 or a Beech Bonanza, would be able to land, but you'd need to be precise on the approach, because you'd need pretty much all the angled deck to land. To launch, you need 25 knots of wind over the deck, and they did that when the WW II warbirds launched off of Carl Vinson for the 1995 VJ-Day anniversary, or the two B-25s off of Ranger for the 1992 anniversary of the Doolittle Raid.
WW II arrestor hooks are too narrow for today's ships, though.
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Treat everyone you meet with kindness and respect, but always have a plan to kill them.
Old USMC Adage
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