Aircraft Carriers

[dy031101]

I continued to think of the scenario where the Royal Navy were allowed to operate aircraft carriers, albeit only logical extension of the Centaur class i.e. "light fleet carriers"...... since BVR capability was primarily the domain of bigger jets, would arming the small carriers with Sea Dart missiles (with the 22-round launcher) have been justified?

Or would it still have been more practical to find a Skyflash-capable fighter?

[Joe C-P]

Lots of myths around the scrapping of Melbourne.  Claims were made that the Chinese rather cheekily asked for a copy of the catapults operating manual.  However, this occurred supposedly long after they'd actually been melted down.   I'd also question whether they would be of much use.   I understand they had certain important parts missing when they left Garden Island on that final voyage to China.

I'm not saying they would reuse the originals, but the Chinese are quite adept at copying and otherwise obtaining others' technology.

[Bill TGH]

or should this be in twins catagory ?

[Jschmus]

That looks...ambitious.  It's obviously a kitbash of some sort, but it's missing important details, like elevators.

On a related-ish note, I saw a blurb last night saying that the Russians are looking to buy one of France's Mistral-class LHDs.

[anthonyp]

That looks...ambitious.  It's obviously a kitbash of some sort, but it's missing important details, like elevators.

On a related-ish note, I saw a blurb last night saying that the Russians are looking to buy one of France's Mistral-class LHDs.

No, no, it's Chinese, they will use ancient chinese secrets to move planes to the hangar.

I've seen that fanboy kitbash before.  Neat, but wholly improbably.

And according to the article on defensenews.com, Russia wants to buy a Mistral, then license build four more in their shipyards with French assistance.  Why, I dunno, I think the Mistral rides a bit high for North Sea maneuvers, but that's just me.

[Wyrmshadow]

Thats a very poor mirror job. I can do that myself but I dont want to with my Kiev model.

[Joe C-P]

Mistrals would work with Russian helos. They don't have enough fixed-wing aircraft to even fill out the deck of the Kuznetsov, so it's not worth building another full-fledged CTOL or STOL. The Kievs, while interesting, had repeated problems with their engines.

If true, it is also interesting that the Russians are admitting they can't design and build their own warships.

JoeP

[famvburg]

        ISTR seeing something not long ago about a plan in the '70s maybe, for the PRC to get some Harriers anyway.

While I understand that Yak-38 would be surpassed royally by Harrier...... I still couldn't help to wonder if the PLAN would want to try one despite the Sino-Soviet Split and before ties to the West were warmed up......

Maybe copied from captured or wrecked examples and spawned some Chinese variants?

My boy, how long do you want to spend in the re-education camps?  With an attitude like that, you won't be doing much else in the Brave New World which is fast approaching!  

Sounds like I'm butting in, but innovation without imitation is a waste of time.  

[Jschmus]

        ISTR seeing something not long ago about a plan in the '70s maybe, for the PRC to get some Harriers anyway.

Check this out:

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1979/1979%20-%200181.html

It's on the first page, "Soviet Union attacks Chinese Harrier deal".

[KJ_Lesnick]

What were the landing weights and landing speed requirements for the Hancock-Class Carriers?


KJ Lesnick

[Bill TGH]

Three hulls, two landing runs, one pair of catapults & one ramp....
this one is even better than the catamaran...

[Sauragnmon]

More so because it LOOKS like that's a SWATH hull - look at the massive underwater hulls on that thing, she's gotta be a SWATH with that kind of bulging.  She'd be a mother of a carrier if she was, for the sheer stability and low response to wave action she would have.  I always thought a SWATH carrier would be awesome as hell - expensive as all get out, but so bloody worth it for the low pitch-roll effects that happen.

[Joe C-P]

Hmm. Three sub-like hulls - two Oscars and a Typhoon? A big slab of flight deck, the island from a Kuznetsov with some hacking up. I wonder, though, how a mid-ship island, especially such a messily-shaped one, would affect the air passing over the landing area.

Is that supposed to be a VLS system forward?

[anthonyp]

LOL!!!  I knew my ski-jump CVV wasn't that crazy with the shortened catapult on the bow leading to a jump!

[Sauragnmon]

I seriously don't think a cat-to-jump concept is THAT bad - it gives nose up and rapid accelleration all in one - ostensibly it would give the aircraft a shorter takeoff roll in the same space.  Of course, the problem is the way the shuttle is hooked up, to pull the aircraft's gears, it makes it a bit of a problem on release, but if you had it set up somehow so it cleared the path and got down out of the way, you should be able to run it like that.  Hell, two cats down to the ramp would be a much more efficient layout I think.  Or straight cats on a deck with a longer, shallower vertical lift - give it the original six degree incline, or maybe eight to ten, but a longer slope so you can run it straight and have cats all the way to the edge.

Two typhoons and a lengthened typhoon would probably fit it better for the length.  Of course, if you set it up with Oscar-style side-saddle tubes you could keep a guided-AShM capacity as per the standard Russian layout.  I believe that IS a VLS on the forward section, which would be a great place for some of the heavier SAMs if you're going Russian, like SA-N-6 and some SA-N-9's, set up kashtan and AK-630 and RBU-6000 mounts along the sides on sponsons like the Kuznetsov and Ulyanov'sk, and she's a floating fortress in essence.  AND she's got a real nice stable flight surface, because of the low response to wave action.