My review of World War Z got some attention over the weekend thanks to tweets from colleagues and RTs from a number of others. My thanks in particular to a couple of readers who pointed out that, although I said that the scene in the film showing a C-130 Hercules taking off from an aircraft carrier was 'highly improbable', it has in fact been done:
Note, though, that this was a one-off trial conducted in 1963 which required modifications to the aircraft. The US Navy concluded that the practice was unsafe and abandoned the idea. To revive it 50 years later in the middle of a planetary emergency seems a stretch, hence 'highly improbable'.