Landing signal officer

Naval aviation role on aircraft carriers F-4B Phantom of VF-21 returns to USS Midway (CVA-41) off Vietnam in 1965. CAG LSO, LCDR Vern Jumper. Landing signal officers aboard USS Independence. The LSO platform, in this configuration, was approximately 2.5 feet below flight deck level. A landing signal officer or landing safety officer (LSO), also informally known as paddles (United States Navy) or batsman (Royal Navy), is a naval aviator specially trained to facilitate the "safe and expeditious recovery" of naval aircraft aboard aircraft carriers. LSOs aboard smaller air capable ships that launch and recover helicopters are informally known as deck. Originally LSOs were responsible for bringing aircraft aboard ship using hand-operated signals. Since the introduction of optical landing systems in the 1950s, LSOs assist pilots by giving information via radio handsets. History WWII-era LSO using "paddles" to communicate with landing aircraft In the United States Navy, aircraft carrier operations began with USS Langley (CV-1) in 1922, and it served as a platform to experiment and develop aircraft launch and recovery procedures. The first pilots had no signaling system for assistance from