RN Hybrid Aircraft Carriers

[tigercat]

What would a RN Hybrid carrier have looked like?

There was a sort of Hybrid Carrier when HMS Furious was part converted  with her rear turret and a flight deck

However RN philosophy  was more turrets to the front   and charge the enemy than run away

The Hybrid Carrier was itself a contradiction as a carrier should stand off from the enemy  and allow its aircraft  to close the enemy whereas a Batttleship  was intended to close the enemy in a battleline.

[RussC]

In order to rethink the hybrid BB/CV, rethink the tactics it would be used under. Remember that the battleship had secondary roles after the big Jutland type slugging matches. These roles grew after Taranto and Pearl Harbor and the carrier versus carrier battles.

  The roles were convoy escort and shore bombardment. All the older US and RN BB's were consigned to these. A hybrid would have done these extremely well, especially convoy as the ship could take the place of both a BB and a CVE onto one hull.

  The shore bombardment might be as emphasized too, as a plane could actually take off, unload on a shore target and return never having left the traffic pattern! Although the launch and landings would have to sync well with the main turrets' firings!

[pyro-manic]

Maybe convert Hood? Very long ship, so lots of room for a decent sized flightdeck, and a fit of four 15" up front (plus some 4.5" secondaries?) is not to be sniffed at. Chop off all the upperworks and the deck would be 600-odd feet long, which is pretty good. Duct the stacks out to the side and add an offset superstructure and you can still have a director up high as well.

A similar conversion to Repulse or Renown would yield similar results - they were very fast ships, and would only lose their one X turret leaving the four 15" up front. Not as long as Hood, so less flightdeck/hangar length, but still a decent size and capable. Maybe with a hybrid Repulse, Force Z fends off the IJN torpedo bombers and Singapore holds out for longer?

[PR19_Kit]

Wouldn't you have to invent the angled deck earlier than it really was? Otherwise how do the aircraft launch, and recover without risk of smashing into the superstructure if you needed to overshoot?

[pyro-manic]

No, you'd remove the original upperworks, and build a small offset island superstructure as on Glorious.

[ysi_maniac]

Already studied

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,28856.0/highlight,hybrid+hood.html
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,28237.0/highlight,hybrid+hood.html

[pyro-manic]

There we go. Your "HybridHood2" drawing is closest to what I was thinking, but with an Ark Royal-style stern overhang.

[PR19_Kit]

No, you'd remove the original upperworks, and build a small offset island superstructure as on Glorious.

OK, so the forward turrets are where the flying-off deck was on the Glorious-Courageous, but moved amidships a bit?

[pyro-manic]

The forward A and B turrets are unchanged. The hangar, workshop spaces etc replaces everything at the weather deck level and above (ie all deckhouses, rear turrets, masts and funnels) and stops at the (very heavily armoured) conning tower. The flight deck is above that, on a level with the top of the conning tower so it clears the top of B turret. If you look at the second image in ysi's topic (linked above) that's the kind of layout it would have. The funnels and spotting top would be moved to the starboard deck edge with a small island being added.

[Joe C-P]

The Hybrid Warship: The Amalgamation of Big Guns and Aircraft
R. D. Layman and Stephen McLaughlin, authors