Looking at that youtube video of the plane taking off from the carrier, I was suprised by how slow it seemed to be when it left the bow. Obviously it was fast enough, going into the wind, the ski jump, and the speed of the carrier all make take-off easier. I was suprised that the start of the take off run seemed to be only about halfway down the length of the ship.
If the takeoff roll started from near the stern, there would be more length to accellerate and allow a faster take off speed.
Doing the maths, assume carrier is 300m long and at present they are using 150m takeoff roll
assume accelleration is half a G = 5m/s/s,
formula, v^2=u^2 + 2as.
Takeoff for 150m
v^2=2*5*150
thus v=38.7 meters per second = 75knots.
please note 75 knots if plane speed relative to ship, it does not include ship speed and wind speed
Takeoff speed for 300m
v^2=2*5*300
thus v= 54.7m/s = 106knots
Thus having an extra 150m of runway allows for approximatley a 30 knot higher takeoff speed. This means more lift, thus more weight, thus more stores, more fuel etc.
Is 0.5G a reasonable accelleration for a large loaded jet?
Of course planes cant take off from the stern on a conventional carrier, as that would get in the way of the angled landing deck, which has to be kept free in emergencies. (landings)
A catamaran carrier with 2 non angled and parallel strips would have advantage if you had to design a carrier without a catapult. Heaps of hangar space below, thus no need to store planes on top of deck. One runway would be used for landing, and one for takeoff. The takeoff runway would have a ski ramp the landing runway not. Additionally STOL aircraft for AEW, fly-in of stores etc, could use the landing deck occasionally (apparently STOL aircraft cant use a ski ramp?). Having two parallell runways means no conflict, thus take-off runs could start from near the stern of the ship, allowing for heavier loads. Disadvantage would be more weight in a carrier, design risk too.
I know there was a sketch in this thread a few weeks ago of a catamaran carrier (a pretty useless design sketch I have to admit) . I have drawn up a sketch of a catamaran carrier, but dont want to put it in this thread. I think there was a thread for new carrier ideas on this forum a couple years back. If I can find it again I might post some ideas in that, and not hijack this thread.
Landings would be easier due to having a longer runway to land on (a full 300m), additionally runway would not be angled, it would be straight, making things all in all a bit easier.
Anyone recall the thread I am talking about
