alternate history

Before Polaris was put out to sea, submarines weren't their only host platform; the USN had their Long Beach and Albany cruisers "fitted for, but not with" with eight Polaris tubes. Also, the Italian Navy and their Cruisers held provisions for Polaris tubes. Still, these plans were dashed after...

I need your Advice I working on Story were German history goes little different Here goes Aerospace industry in VTOL with Do-31 and EWR VJ 101 get into service. One of civilian application is a VTOL Business Jet I took the MBB HFB 320 Jet as template With Mass 9600 kg it need around...

After the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 the US replaced its land based medium range ballistic missiles in Europe. While the Minuteman ICBM was the main national deterrent system, the role of countering Russian missiles aimed at Western Europe was taken on by Polaris (later Poseidon) submarines...

In an alternate world where the USA avoided the trauma of Vietnam and LBJ won a second term the Apollo moon and earth orbit programmes continued into the 70s as originally planned. Assuming that a similarly pro Apollo President had succeeded Johnson in 1973 and the US economy continued to...

... 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...

Did Canada ever consider the A4 Skyhawk for its carrier aviation and Norway reinforcement role (instead of F5)? Would have been able to operate with USN/USMC.

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...