Ask anything Thread

[plawolf]

If they do go fully flying carrier, I think they won't really need so much runway, and can just use ramps to drop fighters to use gravity and altitude to get them going.

You could launch half a dozen fighters or more at the same time like that.

So you have your traditional top deck for recovery and maybe the launch of heavy aircraft like tankers, AWACS etc, the hanger in the middle, and a lower launch deck at the bottom.

That should give you a far higher sortie rate, as launch and recovery could take place simultaneously.

The downside is you will need a flying carrier to start with, and it will take up a lot more internal volume to have a launch deck, so potentially less room for fuel and stores.

Resupply is also going to be a pain unless you also develop flying UNREP cargo ships.

But i think we are well and truly OT here.

 

[Intrepid]

The helicarrier can avoid torpedoes by flying above water. It can fly inland and over shallow water/reef and cross land borders. There is no barrier water or land a hellicarrier can't go...

Fanboys wet dream. What fuel consumption do you expect for such a thing?

 

[delft]

USN had flying carriers, two of them but not at the same time. The first, ZRS-4 Akron was commissioned 27 October 1931 and sank in the Atlantic 4 April 1933 (

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). ZRS-5 Macon (

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(ZRS-5) ) was commissioned 23 June 1933 and sank in the Pacific 12 February 1935.
I read the ZRS-5 accident report and found it shocking.

 

[delft]

Fanboys wet dream. What fuel consumption do you expect for such a thing?

Spoilsport.
But you are 100% correct. And also don't forget the weight of lifting gear. There is a horrible tendency of the helicopter main gearbox to grow faster in weight than the maximum take off weight of the craft. Only the most capable gear designers/producers are able to build large helicopters.

 

[Equation]

Fanboys wet dream. What fuel consumption do you expect for such a thing?

Small nuclear fusion reactor perhaps? Last I heard China was ahead on that fusion technology thangy.

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[delft]

Small nuclear fusion reactor perhaps? Last I heard China was ahead on that fusion technology thangy.

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That takes nothing away from the enormous weight of machinery needed to get such a monster airborne. Better go to a huge Wing In Ground effect machine as a small airborne aircraft carrier. That too would be able to cross a coast line if that is a low step or a gently rising plain.

 

[Intrepid]

That takes nothing away from the enormous weight of machinery needed to get such a monster airborne ...

The small nuclear fusion reactor was a joke. Didn't you see the smileys?

 

[by78]

This was posted on Top81 by someone who claims it to be 093B... How credible is this? Assuming this isn't a PS job, can anyone identify the silhouette (as belonging to something else)?

 

[by78]

Again, these were posted on Top81 and elsewhere. Assuming again this isn't a PS job, can anyone identify where and to whom this apparatus belong to?

 

[davidau]

Again, these were posted on Top81 and elsewhere. Assuming again this isn't a PS job, can anyone identify where and to whom this apparatus belong to?