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Originally posted by Zaphod58
It took hours on the surface to launch the planes. They had to be disassembled to fit into the hangar, so to launch them they had to sit on the surface and reattach the wings to them. And they could only carry two planes. Great for psychological warfare, not so good for real damage.
Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
One can always fantasize I presume. By the way where did you get that photo?
Shattered OUT...
Originally posted by Zaphod58
You're still going to have a SERIOUSLY limited amount of space to put planes. It would be more of a psychological weapon than a really effective weapon. You might not have to attach the wings anymore (in the case of a swing wing design), but unless you're going to build a HUGE launching platform, you're not going to have many planes.
Another drawback is how to recover the planes. In WWII they used floatplanes. They would land next to the carrier, and they had a crane to put them back on the deck. If you want to land them back on the sub, you just doubled your size. It would be a MONSTROUS submarine, and probably not able to dock in most of your bases, because they aren't deep enough for it.
You could put VTOLs on it, but even if you use them, you're still looking at a huge size to it, and places like Pearl Harbor, which is one of the USN's major shipyards in the Pacific can barely take some of the newer CVNs.
[edit on 4/2/2007 by Zaphod58]
Originally posted by toreishi
hey is that Deep Angel?
here's some info about the game
a visionary look at carrier evolution
USS Angelus
yea its fiction but the reason i posted this info is because it is somewhat related to the topic. got some interesting stuff about supercavitatons and underwater warfare in the future though.
Originally posted by spanishcaravan
Dont think there will be any sub aircraft carriers for a while. But its good to keep coming up with different ideas. Keeps things fresh. What I would like to see though, is a flying aircraft carrier. Like the ones in sky captain. Didnt care for the movie,but the concept is nice.
Originally posted by zeeon
Nice topic OP.
When I first read the post, I was thinking - well it would have to be a flat top boat, cuz thats how aircraft carriers launch. But here's the thing - With magnetic technology coming to fruition, things are becoming alot different these days.
You can reduce the size of the flat surface ontop of the boat using mag locks. Even the new CVN-X carrier is supposed to be using these new-fangled mag locks to recover birds. Which is not only more quiet, but uses less space to stop the bird then using steal arresting cables.
Secondly, if you can use mag locks to recover birds, you can use them to launch them. If you, per-se - you could figure out a way to mag launch a bird from an inclosed tube (almost sort of like a torpedo, with the opening just above the surface ) you wouldn't have to worry about reassembling aircraft before launch. You just runem from the bay to the tube into the air. Of course recovering them would be a pain in the arse....but i haven't gotten there yet. So stay tuned ;P