Deck choreography: fold for parking, spread for the cat 46c67d7

The flight deck finally works like the world’s most dangerous ballet should. Three rules now govern every airframe the deck crew touches:

1. Fold for parking. Trap aboard, taxi clear of the foul line, and the wings come up — Sto-Wing slew on the Hornet, fold-up on the Intruder, Viking and Greyhound — so the next jet can park wingtip-to-wingtip. You can watch the whole recovery cycle from the island.
2. Spread before the cat. Taxi toward the shuttle and the wings deploy on the way, locks in, ready for the shot. And if somehow a jet reaches the holdback still folded, the cat officer simply waits: the countdown holds until the wings read full spread. Nobody goes off the pointy end with folded wings. Ever.
3. Steam and spin. The catapult now vents steam down the track behind the shuttle — for your launch and every air-wing shot. And a sharp-eyed correction on the E-2: the rotodome turns, but the struts that carry it stand still, exactly like the real dish.