Seabase Idea

[Burncycle]

So... I was looking at huge ships (In this case, the Jahre Viking supertanker) and was wondering what it would look like as an aircraft carrier.  I put an outline of the Jahre Viking hull next to a Nimitz (as close as I could scale wise) and gave it a deck with similar amounts of overhang.

I found that it would have enough room to simultaneously land C-130 sized aircraft while it has a deck park (alleviating the need for an angled deck).  I thought it would be kind of neat to support low intensity operations and special forces as a forward logistics staging area with depot level maintenance and R&R facilities onboard.  It's a lot smaller than other seabase concepts I've seen, but this seems the most plausible on the surface of it... and if they ever designed a C-130 variant with folding wings (outboard of the nacelles) I think you could operate enough to airlift a battalion!

Of course the C-130 is restricted to deckpark only, being too large to go below decks, but you could also operate regular carrier aircraft as well.

Built to commercial standards it wouldn't survive long in a shooting war...

[Captain Canada]

Awesome ! Love seeing all those Hercs ranged on the deck....and hey, why not ?  And if the tail folded as well, surely you could bring ( a few of ) them below deck for maintenance and / or storage ? The way the elevators are all on the sides now it should be easy enough to do.....

[rickshaw]

The Angled Deck has far more advantages than just allowing a deck park.  It allows simultaneous landing on and flying off operations.  It ensures that under and overs go in the drink beside the carrier, rather than in front of it.  It's a great British invention.   

[Captain Canada]

I never thought of that when I saw how big the deck was, but you're right. Makes a lot more sense for high speed a/c like fighters too....

[Burncycle]

Well, due to it's size it supports simultaneous launches and landings, but the point about not having a failed launch plop the aircraft into the water right in front of the carrier is a valid one lol.

[Thorvic]

Just do it as per CVA-01 where the angle was only 4 degress the parrallel deck or as near to it was preferred to the full angle as pilots do struggle with the focusing on the correct angle as the orientation of the ship and its wake is on a different perspective.

[Librarian]

Now that's along the lines of what I may require. Couldn't the c-130s have a folding wing like the Hawkeye and a folding fin...then it's just a long tube....tube hangers maybe like on those Japanese subs?

[Old Wombat]

Folding the fuselage of a Herc is a touch problematic, designing in a fold-point creates a weakness in the structure which will limit its load-carrying capability. Although you could possibly put a fold joint just forward of the ramp hinge.

Helo's, such as the CH-53, can have a folding tail boom because the tail boom is non-load-bearing & is long enough that, when folded, decreases the overall length.

Folding the tail fin & the outer wings, although the latter will cause a small reduction in load-carrying capacity, would give a better result. Especially as on a broad-beamed ship, like a supertanker, you can design a wider overhang to give you sufficient for a C-130-sized elevator platform.



Guy

PS: A couple of edits to fix senior-moment errors in my thought processes.

[wuzak]

Don't really need a supersized sea base to land a Herc!



http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp

Lockheed's Ted Limmer, who checked out fighter pilot Flatley in the C-130, stayed on for some of the initial touch-and-go and full-stop landings. "The last landing I participated in, we touched down about 150 feet from the end, stopped in 270 feet more and launched from that position, using what was left of the deck. We still had a couple hundred feet left when we lifted off. Admiral Brown was flabbergasted."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfwJJD5jGXk

That was on the USS Forrestal. Nimitz Class carriers are slightly bigger, in both width and length.

[Captain Canada]

Great video ! Thanks ! Seen the one angle a bunch of times but this vid offers a lot more insight.