Some Alternate Ship Designs

[oldpop2000]

I decided to develop my own hybrid BB/Carrier design. Primarily it will launch float planes for use as spotting and scouting as a part of the battle fleet and the scouting fleet. With twelve inch guns, she could protect herself from cruisers and destroyers with enough speed to outrun them or the battlecruisers of the day. The Lexington class carriers did have 8 inch guns so this is possible. We have a set of real hybrids, the Ise and Hyuga is see the actual results. Maybe FW and the team could add this ship type to a later version of DesignShip2 with some additions for total aircraft etc. Items that pertain to a carrier.

[oldpop2000]

I am running into a problem with my flight deck designs. I would like the bridge structure to be on the starboard side of the flight deck with two stacks, but I haven't figured out how to get designShip2 to make that happen. So, I am just building my design for a Flight Deck Cruiser with five 8" guns, one stack which is ok but not optimal. I don't like the stack pumping smoke across the flight deck. Suggestions are welcomed. This type of ship was being considered by the Bureau of designs circa 1939 but why not move it forward. Lot's of reasons to build a ship like this in post WW1 time frame. Washington Naval Treaty would be one of them, they are cheaper than building a carrier from scratch or converting battlecruisers like the Lexingtons. The flight deck should have a length of about 400 feet and a width of about 90 feet. That is more than enough for the aircraft of the day. For balance reasons, elevator is centered in the middle, a little forward. It would also make it possible to land, taxi forward to the elevator while another plane is landing. Obviously however, this whole configuration will be slow to launch aircraft, but you might be able to launch four at a time. Since this was early in the carrier's evolution, they were used mostly for scouting but could possibly carry a torpedo or a bomb, the British did have such aircraft at this time. By the way, this ship could have catapults in the hangar openings on both the starboard and port sides to launch aircraft. You could launch two from the deck and two from the hanger catapults so you could launch four aircraft in five minutes. For a thirty four plane squadron of mixed fighters, bombers and scouts, you could launch the whole lot in forty- two minutes possibly shorter with practice.

UPDATE: I've added one more design with a different deck configuration and two triple mounted turrets with 6 " guns.

For you doubting Thomas's, the Lexington, Yorktown and Essex class carriers all had hangar deck catapults. I've seen them on Essex class carriers. They were capable of launching F6F Hellcats with wheels down, not a light aircraft by any stretch of the imagination.

Attachments: