Re: Name of Robotrix in Metropolis

In <e5j7v7$lt0$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> tmcd@xxxxxxxxx (Tim McDaniel) writes:

In article <1149046666.931692.194580@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
<omnivore_ink@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Well, in WWII, they were...

...teak.

You are correct sir. I hadn't realized that aircraft carrier decks
were made from wood instead of metal until I saw it at the
musuem...to prevent 'sparks' that might set off explosives.

Apparently, not quite. Samuel Eliot Morison, _The Two-Ocean War_,
p. 541, ch. xvi ("Iwo Jima and Okinawa"), sec. 5, in re kamikaze
attacks:

Since 26 March [1945] the Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet contingent,
including [four] carriers ... In so doing the British carriers
were proving the value of steel decks, which American naval
architects had rejected on account of their weight.

It wasn't just weight -- it was topside weight, which was always a problem
with carriers.

Furthermore, the tradeoff that the British carriers had to take was *much*
smaller air groups, and much slower operating pace. The extra weight of
the armored flight deck meant that, for the same tonnage, there was
substantially less space for aircraft. Furthermore, British carriers had
to strike the deck aircraft below, whereas the American carriers normally
had a significant fraction of the air wing stored on the flight deck
(which also affected the size of the air wing). So a US carrier could
launch the deck aircraft without needing to bring them up from the hangar
deck, whereas a British cycle meant moving a lot more aircraft.

TO quote from Friedman's _U. S. Aircraft Carriers: A Design History_ (pg
141):

Advocates of the armored flight deck were still active, and on 25 October
[1939] the General Board went so as to issue tentative characteristics for
a ship with a 2.5-in armored flight deck...

Admiral Towers didn not like the idea; he considered an armored flight
deck sensible only in the context of British operating practice. The
Royal Navy struck its planes below as they landed (and consequently was
far less efficient in intensity and rate of strike operations), whereas a
U.S. carrier would always have many of her aircraft on deck. Even were
the flight deck to resist penetration, a bomb exploding on it would be
extremely destructive.


Even the Midways were initially being designed without armored flight
decks, but, as the design got bigger, there was enough tonnage available
to add the armor.

At the same time as the Midways were being designed, the US had a chance
to look at the damage that came from an attack on an armored flight deck
carrier, when HMS Illustrious was repaired at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1941.
That information was used in designing the Midways.

There's a much longer discussion about this question in Friedman -- I'd
strongly recommend the book for anyone interested in the tradeoffs in
designing a carrier (there are also comparable books about battleships,
cruisers, and destroyers -- they're 20 years old now, but still valuable
resources).

--
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd@xxxxxxxxx

Ben
--
Ben Yalow ybmcu@xxxxxxxxx
Not speaking for anybody
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Shinano: what if she hadnt been sunk?
    ... J-aircraft.org's board for the IJN, ... 1945 as Shinano would have been, without aircraft, ... other conventional carriers, allowing them all to ... giant flight deck that, ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: Shinano: what if she hadnt been sunk?
    ... what if the Shinano had not been sunk in November ... 1945 as Shinano would have been, without aircraft, ... other conventional carriers, allowing them all to ... giant flight deck that, ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: F-35 versions (about current CVL)
    ... Given that the hangars of the existing carrier fleet are ... A further problem you run into with a smaller deck that has to operate ... the same aircraft types is that your sorty rate goes way down. ... against smallish fleet carriers. ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: Food Checkout Week
    ... and this also avoided problems with aircraft ... An armored flight deck meant so ... The American carriers were bigger, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)
  • Re: Name of Robotrix in Metropolis
    ... In so doing the British carriers ... The "steel" referred to there was actually armour. ... It means the main structural deck is the flight deck, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)