What Happened To The Navy’s Airborne Aircraft Carriers?

[Flyaway]

New documentary from Mustard:

View: https://youtu.be/w6vgVTJK_rg?si=rdqFL_JNWdh8gDKE

 

[Justo Miranda]

They should have continued with helium; the only natural source of this gas is in the USA.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The big problem was the design maximum altitude, only 6500ft. You cannot fly from the East Coast to the West Coast if you cannot exceed 6500ft.

They really needed some German hi-flyer DNA from the bomber Zeppelins, to give the Akron/Macon a 10-15kft maximum altitude.

 

[Antonio]

US earliest strategic bomber attempt faced also from inability to simply fly over mountains

"...but its slow top speed and modest range with a full bomb-load, not to mention the engines’ inability to get the plane to its estimated ceiling of 7,725 feet, were major disappointments. Those shortcomings were highlighted when an appearance at Bolling Field in Washington, D.C., had to be canceled because the bomber couldn’t get over the Appalachians with a full load of fuel.
Altitude, load and range limitations, as well as cost overruns, ultimately doomed the XNBL-1."

The Barling Bomber: "Billy" Mitchell's Long Range Failure

Cost overruns and poor performance doomed the experimental strategic bomber, but it helped point the way to the future.

www.historynet.com

 

[Justo Miranda]

The big problem was the design maximum altitude, only 6500ft. You cannot fly from the East Coast to the West Coast if you cannot exceed 6500ft.

They really needed some German hi-flyer DNA from the bomber Zeppelins, to give the Akron/Macon a 10-15kft maximum altitude.

Good observation, I didn't know that because being navy ships I thought they would be used only over the sea.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Yellow wings, golden era.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-2

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-3

 

[Scott Kenny]

Good observation, I didn't know that because being navy ships I thought they would be used only over the sea.

USS Akron was lost in a storm off New Jersey, USS Macon was lost in a storm off the coast of California, and the US lost another airship in Arizona during a storm.

The real reason to fly across the country is to get from the factory to either coast, and then to redeploy if needed to whichever coast was threatened.

 

[Yellow Palace]

The big problem was the design maximum altitude, only 6500ft. You cannot fly from the East Coast to the West Coast if you cannot exceed 6500ft.

They really needed some German hi-flyer DNA from the bomber Zeppelins, to give the Akron/Macon a 10-15kft maximum altitude.

In fairness, ships can't do that either. You can get over the Isthmus of Panama with a 6,500 foot maximum altitude.

 

[Scott Kenny]

You can get over the Isthmus of Panama with a 6,500 foot maximum altitude.

Sure, which requires flying through how many other countries' airspace?

While 10kft might even get you through the northern Rockies, sneaking through the passes.

Also, what's the visual horizon distance from 10,000ft? almost 200km (not counting extra distance for "hull down over the horizon")? The airships were Fleet Scouts, extra altitude would help them do their job better.

 

[Yellow Palace]

Sure, which requires flying through how many other countries' airspace?

While 10kft might even get you through the northern Rockies, sneaking through the passes.

Also, what's the visual horizon distance from 10,000ft? almost 200km (not counting extra distance for "hull down over the horizon")? The airships were Fleet Scouts, extra altitude would help them do their job better.

When the Canal Zone was under US control, and routing through the Caribbean straits (as a surface ship would), zero. Especially as territorial waters were only three miles in those days.

Not saying more altitude wouldn't be useful for all sorts of reasons... but from the point of view of the late 1920s US Navy, they're a ship that can do 80 knots with a masthead 2,800 feet up. Which is already pretty damn impressive compared to an OMAHA class scout.

Edit: the pressure altitude of the class was just 2,800 feet. Pretty lousy for an aircraft. But still remarkable if handled like a ship.

 

[Scott Kenny]

When the Canal Zone was under US control, and routing through the Caribbean straits (as a surface ship would), zero. Especially as territorial waters were only three miles in those days.

Not saying more altitude wouldn't be useful for all sorts of reasons... but from the point of view of the late 1920s US Navy, they're a ship that can do 80 knots with a masthead 2,800 feet up. Which is already pretty damn impressive compared to an OMAHA class scout.

Edit: the pressure altitude of the class was just 2,800 feet. Pretty lousy for an aircraft. But still remarkable if handled like a ship.

I still want enough pressure altitude to fly from Moffet Field to Lakehurst over the Rockies... *grumble*

 

[Dilandu]

They really needed some German hi-flyer DNA from the bomber Zeppelins, to give the Akron/Macon a 10-15kft maximum altitude.

This would require making airships much lighter and fragile; not a good idea for the ocean scouts.

 

[publiusr]

Time for a revisit?

Drones make up the compliment---airship perhaps uses smaller balloonets/kite-sails...radar and satellite images allow the airship to orbit high or low pressure cells so as to save on fuel/power... convection avoided.