Warbird Information Exchange

A 'what if'.

I was just thinking that the angled flight deck, invented (I believe) and trialled in the 1950s was basically 'a good idea' and wasn't dependant on any technical changes for its invention. It became necessary due to the development of jets in carrier aviation, but most of the benefits would have been of significant use and applicability in W.W.II. In fact, all other things being equal I think it may have turned a battle or two.

I've arbitrarily taken 1940 as a hypothetical date for either the British (who really invented it later on) the Americans or the Japanese having a 'eureka' moment and developing an angled flight deck before 1941.

Some questions:

1. Was it possible? AFAIK there's nothing to stop carriers of the era to have angled flight decks developed.

2. What effect/s would it have on carrier battles in general, and...

3. ...can we think of any specific examples where being able to launch and recover and avoid into deck park overshoots would have affected a particular aspect of a particular naval engagement. (e.g. would the Salerno Seafire losses have been less?)

4. If nation 'a' invented it, how quickly could nation 'b' copy it during W.W.II?

5. Any other bright ideas, but not the flexible deck, please!

A good bit of background, including how relatively straightforward such a change would be on many W.W.II carriers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_dec ... light_deck

Just some fun, your input wanted...

Regards,

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James K

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I think that the real key to the angled deck is the steam catapult. It is the combination of the two that made post war jet operations more effective.

WW2 aircraft, especially the bombers, needed a lot of deck for the take off run. The angled deck would probably have allowed some simultaneous take off and landing operations such as launch of CAP fighters while recovering other aircraft but without the catapult I don't see very many TBFs or SB2Cs making a mid deck take off.

If the deck were successfully developed with the catapult then it seems that every carrier could at least double the number of take offs per launch. Another aspect would be a wider deck allowing successive minimal interval launches, now you have quadrupled the launch rate.

Think of Midway if the Japanese had been able to launch and recover CAP fighters while rearming the bombers.....

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Probably pretty quick, just look at the WWI Dreadnought *competition*

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The steam catapult was in use during the war, but hydraulic cats started to replace them as they were easier to maintain. Steam became the norm again once jets came on board ship.

One question about an angled deck in WWII. Would it made the Essex class carriers wider
if they were designed from the start with angled decks? They may not have fit through the Panama Canal if too wide.

That could have been a slight handicap getting them into battle sooner.
Jerry

Jerry

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The U.S. Navy added more overhang to the Essex class carrier design in 1940, but no one must have thought of the angle-deck design at that time. Also, don't forget that the Essex class originally had a hangar deck catapult, so someone was thinking of unconventional ways to fly more airplanes--they just didn't think of the one that turned out to be the most successful.

Scott

Here's more "what if?" What if the angled carrier deck had been fitted to the Japanese carriers at Midway? Nagumo got himself in a quandry because he had the opportunity to hit the US ships with his reserve aircraft, but couldn't launch them because the Midway strike force was on the way back. He couldn't have bought up and launched again without probably sacrificing much of the returning force to the sea. What would have happened to the battle outcome had he been able to launch his reserves whilst recovering the Midway strike force?

Walrus

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I believe in that scenario, an angled-deck wouldn't be enough. You'd also need:

Deck-edge lifts

Catapults (hydraulic would be ok)

Sponson extensions off of both sides.

An angled deck alone would allow safer recovery of aircraft due to the ability to bolter from a botched approach. It would also allow for better cyclic ops. But a big alpha-strike would still require space to be spotted. It couldn't be spotted in the landing area ... because planes are landing there. It couldn't be spotted on the bow ... because that's where the planes that were landing would have to go to be spotted or struck down into the hangar. You'd probably only have one elevator available, because the other one would be in the landing area (regardless of the angle).