Aircraft Carriers

[lenny100]

the sea dart was removed years ago and that area was plated over as additional parking for seakings etc. and the trackers were also removed but the area was left empty, exept on ark royal wich got another mast in that area

[icchan]

Hm.  Projectwise I'm liking this.  And doing some research, I'm really liking the looks of HMS Invincible and HMAS Melbourne.  As far as mission goes, ASW is big, as would ground-attack and antiship work from the compound-helicopters.  I think I'll make her a pure aviation ship, rather than a CG of any kind.  So what kind of complement can be reasonable, say using Sea King and Sea Stallion, or similar-sized helicopters?

[GTX]

If you want another idea for a 'carrier whiff', try my Tarakan-class from Greater Australia.  Basically, these are a real world Wasp class LHD with the addition of a 12° "ski jump".

Regards,

Greg

[icchan]

Link failed, sir.

[anthonyp]

Thor's comment about cruiser based aviation ships caused a stirring in my brain.  The CSGN MK II design would have been the American equivalent of the original intention for the Invincibles, just with the usual American testosterone thrown in (we tend to do things to the extreme).  A port side aviation deck for use by 6-8 VSTOLS, 4-8 Helos, and a standard CSGN missile load out.  Add AEGIS, and there's one ship where even an American Admiral standing on the dock would go "It's a bit much, isn't it?"

[Jschmus]

Link failed, sir.

There's no illustration, but I'll quote you the relevant section of the article in question.

The new project quickly took on the lessons of the Falklands War.  Two of the main ones were that size was beneficial to help withstand the effects of missile strikes (the fitting of additional CIWS was also crucial in this respect), and that a greater ability for the conduct of amphibious operations was highly desirable.  As a result of these (and other) considerations, focus now switched to a variant of the American Tarawa class amphibious assault ships.  The new Tarakan-class (as they were known – after the Battle of Tarakan) warships had a more squared-off forward flight deck with 12° "ski jump" and no forward sponsons.  In addition, the Tarakan-class warships were 24 feet longer in overall length to better accommodate a "well-deck" for launching landing craft or Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) hovercraft. Each Tarakan-class warship also had a hospital with 600 patient beds and six operating rooms – this latter feature was also seen to be of significant use in disaster relief operations.   The first of the new class, HMAS Tarakan was launched in 1985 and entered service two years later in 1987.  Its sister ship, the HMAS Balikpapan was launched in late 1986 entering service in 1989.  Both ships were equipped with an air wing tailored for each mission, though generally they carried 6 AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft, 4 AH-1T+ Improved Taipan attack helicopters (this was an upgraded variant with four bladed main rotor and more powerful General Electric T700 engines.  It also acquired some sensors from the AH-64 Apache), 6 CH-47 Sea Chinook helicopters (these were a version of the standard CH-47C but with added navalisation features) and 8 – 10 MH-60B Helicopters (the latter were acquired in 1986 as replacements for the venerable UH-1 Iroquois and were a hybrid of the standard UH-60A troop transport with the navalisation features of the SH-60B-2 ASW helicopter which had also been acquired as an SH-61 replacement).

Edit: I wasn't really trying to count, but this is my 3000th post.  Now if I could just contribute a model.

[GTX]

Link failed, sir.

Corrected - sorry about that.  Usually I check hyper-links but forgot to this time.

Regards,

Greg

[Daryl J.]

I don't know if it would qualify as a carrier per se, but I'd love to convert Airfix' 1/72 German E Boat into a flat top with a small catapult off the front and a crane and put Fine Molds Porco Rosso Savoia on it.    Porco would have quite a bit more range to chase down the air pirates yes?   
,
Daryl J.

[icchan]

I don't know if it would qualify as a carrier per se, but I'd love to convert Airfix' 1/72 German E Boat into a flat top with a small catapult off the front and a crane and put Fine Molds Porco Rosso Savoia on it.    Porco would have quite a bit more range to chase down the air pirates yes?   
,
Daryl J.

The entire crew would be Piccolo's cousins/sisters/nieces/daughters, no less.  With laundry hung up on the radio cables strung aft.

[Thorvic]

I don't know if it would qualify as a carrier per se, but I'd love to convert Airfix' 1/72 German E Boat into a flat top with a small catapult off the front and a crane and put Fine Molds Porco Rosso Savoia on it.    Porco would have quite a bit more range to chase down the air pirates yes?   
,
Daryl J.

Would really need the Revell(ex-matchbox) Flower class corvette for that job as a larger more stable hull better suited to the timeframe and role you want to use it for.

G

[icchan]

Idly, bouncing back to page 1, on the thoughts of catamaran carriers...I can't help but notice that a number of the WWII-era ships were remarkably slender things.  Just bouncing over to the Wikipedia to look up an Atlanta-class, and they measure in at about 165m x 16m.  So what if you could get two hulls, space them about 8m apart, and build a hangar deck and flight deck replacing the existing superstructure?  Cant your funnels low and outwards like some of the old IJN designs, and with each ship holding up 7,000+ tons each that could be interesting.  Again, just a helicopter carrier/amphibious assault ship rather than anything really serious like a fleet boat, and a bit of a kitbash.  Maybe uncompleted wartime production hulls retasked.  I picture a really brutal oil-platform look to the thing, but for a smaller country in the 1960s that wants that level of ability...to quote Joel and the bots, whaddya think sirs?

You could even step it down and go with a ship that's quite capable of fitting anywhere; a Fletcher is barely a dozen meters across and 114 long.  Have perhaps that same half-width gap, so 6m between them, a bit of overhang.  That still peaks at 30m on the waterline, which is big but still smaller than an Iowa.  The concept would be to assemble something with a lot of deck space.  Maybe as a hospital ship/troop transport?  If it's got a large helicopter capability, might as well get some good secondary use.

So how workable would something like this be?  Or should I give up and go back to the (rather aesthetically attractive) Melbourne-class...

[dy031101]

I've always thought the fortress ship Myrmidon of Artemis Global Security from the video game HAWX is just an oversized battleship...... until I saw this video.

Granted, people (me included; again, my cup of tea is of Kiev-like configuration) likely won't be comfortable with its launching aircraft toward the stern and most definitely with having to land an aircraft onto such a narrow runway (which leads straight to the forward superstructure).

[dy031101]

From a Shipbucket picture of Ark Royal CVA by Bombhead and Crazyhorse:



Would someone describe the names of the circled instruments and (if briefly) what they do?

Thanks in advance.

[Hobbes]

Looks like the real world installation on Ark Royal R09:





left to right:
1: Type 275 tracker (for 4") ?
2  Type 963 CCA  (AN/SPN 35)?
3: Type 974 navigation (Decca 12)
4: Type 983 height finder
5, 6: Type 965 AKE-2 long range air search (x2)

http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/rn/carriers/arkroyal/

[dy031101]

Oh so that cylindrical radome is that of the CCA radar (I thought the half-dome is)......

Ark Royal lost all its 4" cannons (all guns, for that matter, according to public domain info) by the time it started embarking Phantoms, so I never suspected that half-dome to be for gunfire control (or a radar capable as such).......