alternate history

... instead of re-inventing the wheel in the 70's. The idea is to blend together, Zumwalt "cheaper decks" (SCS / VSS / CVV) and the too few carrier designs from Europe. To bolster NATO fleets on one side, and the USN on the other - more flattops on both sides of the Atlantic. That is...

Hi I really love this web site it has so much fantastic info on the hidden or forgotten space projects. Sadly, I don’t visit this website enough due to my projects. In 1989 I had my old boardgame Liftoff! Race to the Moon published; a simulation for four players with alternate proposed ways of...

Saro F.177 Option to NA.47 Scenario(s) examining AH were Saro's F.177 aircraft is built and enters service. Ok so it will be an absolute certainty that the negatives will pile on this one. But in turn, if one is looking for a domestic UK fighter and light attack type then this is it. Actually...

Pretty simple, what if the Russians don't flip flop around with their 5th gen program and decide to keep developing the Mig 1.44? Would they have a 5th gen(ish) aircraft earlier? what would it's export potential be? how effective would it be? my 2 cents are It would be operational earlier that...

First a explication how WW3 started and follow initial situation after 1961 Prelude to War 1960 was not good year for Khrushchev, the Soviet ICBM program run into trouble First Korolev informed him that R-7 ICBM was only able to reach north part of USA, in October the R-16 ICBM test ended in...

Despite being favoured over Bristol's design, AWA was not able to spare the staff to realise the ER.134T research aircraft requirement, and so Bristol was awarded the contract. As we know Bristol's 188 took a long time and was hampered by the Gyron Junior engines. But what if AWA had staff...

See attached, from a declassified history of spysats. NASA and the military as of 1966 were quite unhappy at each others. - The military was encroaching on NASA manned spaceflight area, with MOL. - NASA was greatly bothering the military and spooks (NRO, USAF, CIA) by "hijacking" NRO...

Dealing with a pocket battleship threat but with a twist. Instead of one of the great powers assume you have a nation that cannot build its own capital ships, that has to deal with a pair of pocket battleships around 1932. Say for example Goeben proved unrepairable and its guns were used for a...

Inspired by the “What if the gas turbine hadn’t happened“ I always thought of a different angle. This considers what would have happened if just two men had a different mindset at just one meeting? Ref “Genesis of the Jet” John Golley. This book documents Frank Whittle struggle to develop the...

What if the United States Army Air Corps was limited to Ford Tri-Motor transports until the onset of World War 2? For the purposes of debate, Bill Stout is allowed to update the basic Ford airframe to 23,000 pound gross weight and up to 725 horsepower per engine, but is still limited to the...

Hi everyone, Robert McNamara is infamously known on those forums for his particular handling of US military procurement. Selecting the losing contender instead of the one the military prefers, using the Total Procurement Package System that worked poorly with certain weapon programs...

This is a take-off from Anthony Williams "Foresight War." What if you time-travelled back to the 1930s and gained access to the ears of engineers, politicians and generals? What would you suggest? You are not allowed to "predict" World War 2. To keep this thread "alternate" please do not repeat...

the heart of the Centaur class carriers is the use of two capital ship plants, producing 76,000shpin total. Hermes got improved plants for 80,000shp. If the RN had driven more powerful plant machinery prior to WWII, then arguably the Centaurs would be larger carriers. Ideally to something...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur-class_aircraft_carrier How would you proceed to get all 4 Centaurs a) to the same standard and b) keeping their catapults ? The objective is to make them the mainstay of the RN since - Audacious are too few - Ark Royal is a wreck right from 1963, leaving...

May 17 1965 - with some differences. The supersonic requirement for a trainer is canned, end result is an AlphaJet / Hawk hybrid. Staunchly subsonic, can't growth into Jaguar. Breguet still goes under and is forced into Dassault as a job program 1967-69. The program is consolidated as a Fouga...

Let's assume that USSR started to experiment with carriers in late 1920s, with planned rebuild of the training ship "Okean" into the light/training carrier "Komsomolets". While slow and of limited usefulness (roughly the equivalent of USN's "Langley"), this ship still allowed Soviet Navy to gain...

As said in the thread title. There were talks about combining the (equally doomed) Skybolt and Valkyrie. Except it ran into a very stupid issue: Skybolt had been build for subsonic release. Ok then, the B-70 would fly subsonically, launch the Skybolts and get ride of the pylons. And then it...

Could it have happened? Certainly the Lansen is a capable aircraft and the UK sold a number of Hunters to carry the Swedish Airforce over until the Fighter variant came on stream. The Drakken is very attractive and bar rate of climb compared favourably with the Lightning. The A.36 has if...

The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) based in Germany for the duration of the Cold War was a significant component of British defence spending and equipment in the postwar era. It is a very complicated subject, and . unlike the Royal Navy or the RAF has not been such a popular subject for books...

Just a random idea in passing... In the 50's some aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers were converted for Regulus 1 launches. Then the much improved Regulus II was cut short by Polaris. Whatif - Regulus I and, most importantly, Regulus II were developped in non-nuclear variants ? and later...