Yes, it's a tailhook!

The tailhook is lowered as the plane comes in for a landing on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, where it catches on a cable that stops the plane like a big elastic band. Without the hook-and-cable apparatus, the plane could not stop quickly enough to land on the ship.

Thanks go to Mark Holloway of Beatty, Nevada, for photographing this gizmo, and for providing the bogus mutiple choice answers.

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