a submarine aircraft carrier is a
submarine equipped with aircraft for
observation or attack missions these
submarines saw their most extensive used
during World War two although their
operational significance remained rather
small the most famous of them were the
Japanese I 400 class submarine and the
French submarine Surcouf although small
numbers of similar craft were built for
other nations navies as well most
operational submarine aircraft carriers
with the exception of the i-400 and a.m.
classes used their aircraft for
reconnaissance and observation this is
in contrast to the typical surface
aircraft carrier whose main function is
serving as a base for offensive aircraft
early history Germany was the first
nation to experiment with submarine
aircraft carriers initiated by the
Imperial German naval air service
commander oberleutnant zur cielo thava
known all de la parrilla re who
commanded a unit of to friedrichshafen
FF 29 reconnaissance sea planes in
Zeebrugge one of the first u-boats to
arrive at the zeebrugge base was capito
current scene Leutnant Walther
forstman's smu 12 which was to play the
role of submarine aircraft carrier the
unarmed FF 29 sea planes were modified
to carry 26 1 or 2 pound bombs on
December 25 1914 one of the newly
modified aircraft flew across the
English Channel and up the River Thames
dropping bombs on the outskirts of
London although they caused only minor
damage although pursued by British
fighters it returned to base safely on
this first bombing mission it was
apparent that the aircraft suffered more
from a lack of range encouraged by this
success unhold enforced man theorized
that they could increase the range by
carrying the aircraft off the British
coast on the deck of submarine in a
takeoff position then launching an
aircraft by partially submerging
allowing the seaplane to float off on
January 15 1915 u12 left zeebrugge with
a single bomb armed FF 29 on its deck
the submarine left the harbor seemingly
dwarfed by the 53 feet 2 in wingspan of
the
I plane which stretched almost a of the
188 feet length of the small coastal
patrol submarine as soon as you 12
passed the safety of the breakwater
however heavy swells threatened to
damage the aircraft and forstman ordered
the immediate launch of the seaplane the
subs forward tanks were flooded and
despite the pitching of the boat the
seaplane floated off the deck without
much difficulty and took off Arnold
originally intended to rendezvous with
the sub but decided against it after
gaining altitude Arnold left for the
British coast which he apparently flew
along undetected before returning to
zeebrugge although the aircraft had been
carried out to sea and had safely
floated off the submarines deck it was
obvious improvements were needed in the
procedure and set up on Alden forstman
proposed further experiments to the
German naval command but were vetoed as
their project was considered impractical
the plans were reinvestigated in 1917 in
the hope that they would increase the
striking power of new German subs such
as the long-range cruiser type unto see
boot which were to be equipped with
small scouting sea planes that could be
assembled and dismantled and bored and
stored in special compartments on deck
but the idea was abandoned as the war
came to an end two of the aircraft
designs created for that purpose were
the biplane honza Brandenburg ee 20 and
low-wing monoplane luft fahrzeuge
diesels shaft lfg strellson b19 the
first type was designed in 1917 for use
aboard the cruiser submarines that never
went into service the British also
experimented with the aircraft carrying
submarine concept when HM se22 was
fitted out in a manner similar to the
German u-boat but for the purpose of
intercepting German airships as they
crossed the North Sea it was capable of
launching to sup with Schneider float
planes in 1916 however just as in the
German experiment the aircraft were
carried unprotected on the deck and the
submarine was unable to submerge without
losing them between the wars equals
France
Surcouf was a French submarine ordered
in December 1927 launched October
eighteen nineteen twenty nine and
commissioned may 1934 at 4,000 tons
displacement submerged Surcouf was the
largest submarine in the world at the
start of World War two her short wartime
career is laced with controversy and
conspiracy theories Surcouf was designed
as an underwater cruiser intended to
seek and engage in surface combat for
the first part of that mission it
carried an observation float plane in a
hangar built into the after part of the
conning tower for the second part it was
armed with not only 12 torpedo tubes but
also a twin 8-inch gun turret forward of
the conning tower the guns were fed from
a magazine holding 60 rounds and
controlled by a director with a 16 feet
6 in rangefinder mounted high enough to
view a seven miles horizon in theory the
observation plane could direct fire out
to the guns 15 miles maximum range
anti-aircraft cannons and machine guns
were mounted on the top of the hangar
equals Italy the regia marine an ordered
the air tour fiera mosca a submarine
with a waterproof hanger for a small
reconnaissance seaplane in the late
1920s in 1928 mackay and poggio each
received orders for suitable aircraft
which resulted in the Maquis m 53 and
the Poggio pages 8 but the program was
cancelled and the submarines hangar was
removed in December 1931 before esta
fiera mosca was delivered equals Japan
the Japanese applied the concept of the
submarine aircraft carrier extensively
starting with the j2 class I six and the
j-3 class of nineteen thirty-seven
thirty-eight altogether 42 submarines
were built with the capability to carry
float planes one such vessel being the
i8 equals united kingdom after the loss
of the heavy gun carrying HMS m1 in the
Washington Naval Treaty which restricted
the armament of vessels which were not
capital ships the remaining m class
submarines were converted to other uses
x 1920
7h MSM two had entered service with a
waterproof hanger for a pond or pitot
seaplane with folding wings which could
be launched and recovered with the aid
of a derrick in October 1928 she was
fitted with a hydraulic catapult which
allowed the seaplane to be launched from
a ramp on the forward casing the
submarine and her plane could then
provide reconnaissance ahead of the
fleet submerging when threatened hms m2
herself was lost in 1932 and plain
launching submarines were abandoned by
the Royal Navy equals United States the
United States began studying the concept
in 1922 when to Casper u 1c planes were
purchased from Germany for evaluation at
Anacostia Naval Station one aircraft was
later lost during an exhibition flight
in 1923 but they provided useful
technical information the United States
Navy ordered six Clemence excess
ones and six Martin miss wands both
small sea planes that like the Casper
you one could be disassembled easily
both were tested aboard the s-1 during
october and november 1923 later
cockscomb built the improved XS to model
and learning built the XSL but the Navy
had lost interest in the concept by then
problems with launching and recovering
the aircraft and the limited military
value caused interest in the concept to
wane and news that the British submarine
m2 had sunk during trials in 1933 and
damage to the XSL during testings on the
sheltered waters of the Anacostia River
ended further US Navy development World
War 2 equals Germany equals the
Kriegsmarine also started development of
submarines capable of launching aircraft
and ordered for very large cruiser hue
boats in early nineteen thirty-nine
these boats were to be twice as large as
any existing u-boat and were to have had
a crew of 110 while carrying a single
arid or 231 float plane but were
cancelled at the outbreak of war later
that year although not strictly an
aircraft some u-boats carried the fock
at chili's far 330
it was a type of rotary wing kite known
as a gyro glider or rotor kite they were
towed behind German e-boats during World
War two type 92 monson another German
long-range u-boat was the type 92 monson
used in the Indian Ocean and far east
area based in Penang to aid such
submarines the observational Toguro kite
fock at chili's far 330 Barksdale's a
was developed this was used in the
Indian Ocean and sporadically in the
southern Atlantic but its use hindered
the submarines ability to submerge
quickly the flettner flawed 282 a
colibri reconnaissance helicopter was
also planned to be used from long range
submarines this single-seat helicopter
was manufactured of welded steel tubing
and was sized so that it could be stowed
with rotor blades and landing gear
removed in a 5.9 feet 1.8 m diameter x
18 feet five point five meters long
pressured hanger on the u-boats deck the
flaw 282 colibri was never deployed on a
German submarine equals Japan equals the
Japanese applied the concept of the
submarine aircraft carrier extensively
altogether 47 submarines were built with
the capability to carry seaplanes most
ijn submarine aircraft carriers could
carry only one aircraft though a few
types could carry two and the giant I
400 class submarines could carry three
be one type the be one type submarines
were the most numerous type of
submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy
during World War two in total 20 were
made starting with number I 15 which
became the name of the series these
submarines were fast had a very long
range and carried a single Yokosuka e14
why seaplane located in a hangar in
front of the conning tower which was
launched by a catapult the series was
rather successful especially at the
beginning of the war in 1942 I 26
crippled the aircraft carrier USS
Saratoga I 19 on sep tember 15 1942
fired six
eidos at the carrier USS Wasp two of
which hit the carrier and crippled it
with the remaining torpedoes damaging
the battleship USS North Carolina and
the destroyer O'Brien which sank later I
25 conducted the only aerial bombings
ever on the continental United States in
September 1942 when an aircraft launched
from it dropped to incendiary bombs on a
forest near the town of Brookings Oregon
am type the a.m type submarine was a
large sea plane carrying submarine with
a hangar space for two aircraft these
giant submarines were originally of the
a2 type but their design was revised
after construction started so that they
could carry a second aircraft the sea
planes were to be the a key m6a one
bomber carrying 1760 pounds bombs the
range and speed of these submarines was
remarkable but their underwater
performance was compromised making them
easy targets I 13 was sunk on July 16
1945 by the destroyer escort USS
Lawrence see Taylor and aircraft action
from the escort carrier USS nco about
550 miles east of Yokosuka I 14
surrendered at sea at the end of the war
and was later scrapped sentaku type the
i-400 class submarine displaced 6,500
tons and was over 400 feet long three
times the size of ordinary submarines it
had a figure-eight hull shape for
additional strength to handle the on
deck hanger for housing the three a key
m6a syren aircraft in addition it had
three anti-aircraft guns and a large
deck gun as well as a torpedo tubes from
which they could fire the long lance the
largest longest ranged and most deadly
torpedo in use at the time three of the
senator Tokyo were built the i-400 I 401
and I 402 each had for 3,000 horsepower
engines and enough fuel to go around the
world one a one half times more than
enough to reach the United States from
either direction the submarines were
also able to carry three serere an
aircraft each carrying a 1760 pounds
650 miles at 360 miles per hour its name
was combination of Surrey and ran
literally storm out of a clear sky
because the Americans would not know
they were coming it had a wingspan of 40
feet and a length of 38 feet to fit the
aircraft into the hangar the wings of
the aircraft were folded back the
horizontal stabilizers folded down and
the top of the vertical stabilizer
folded over so the overall profile of
the aircraft was within the diameter of
its propeller a crew of four could
prepare and get all three airborne in 45
minutes launching them with a 120 feet
catapult on the foredeck of the giant
submarine post-war studies the US Navy
produced sketch designs of rather
fanciful submarine aircraft carriers in
1946 and 1952 the 1946 study had a
projected hull classification symbol of
SS V and was initially envisioned to
carry 2 XA 2 J super savage bombers for
strategic nuclear strike or for f2h
Banshee fighters various watertight
hangar and takeoff landing ramp
configurations produced potential
lengths ranging from 600 feet to 750
feet the latter with double the aircraft
for a surface displacement of 34
thousand tons the 1952 study was
slightly more realistic carrying three F
to YC dart seaplane fighters with a
topside launching ramp for rough seas
this would still be a large submarine
projected at 460 feet long in 9,000 tons
submerged with a 70 thousand horsepower
nuclear power plant to achieve 28 knots
a more economical plan was also
conceived to convert WWII fleet
submarines to carry a seaplane version
of the a 4d sky Hawk in a similar manner
to the Regulus missile equipped SSG s
using hydro skis for takeoff as the
seedot did future designs no submarine
aircraft carriers remain in use but the
concept reappears periodically the
ability to make a stealth attack has an
o yer but sustained air operations
largely negate the advantage of being
submersible and
sighs limitations preclude sizable
sustained aerial operations furthermore
any submarine large enough to be useful
would be vulnerable to detection and
counter-attack combined with the cost
for such a specialized vessel it is
unlikely that any Navy would consider
their construction worthwhile there are
however several projects to develop UAV
launch and recovery capabilities there
are three methods for doing so launching
out of a torpedo tube out of a vertical
ICBM launch tube or from a
custom-designed unit either in the sale
or mounted on the hull the US Navy has
recognizing the need for more advanced
littoral combat capability to counter
growing area denial asymmetric threats
that this type of vessel could provide
the German type 212 submarines have the
capability to launch UAVs in fiction the
following is a list of fictional
submarine aircraft carriers that have
appeared in media the OVA series macross
0 featured the submarine aircraft
carrier hours to currency DT as the
principal combat vessel for anti UN
forces operating Valkyrie fighters and
supporting amphibious operations the
tour the de dinin from full metal panic
is a submarine capable of launching
attack aircraft and armed slave combat
mecha it was depicted in the series as
discarded Russian technology the rim
foxy and sin foxy from Ace Combat 5 the
unsung war launched UAVs f-35c fighters
and sea harriers from launch tubes the
pc game crimson skies features hms
barracuda a british submersible capable
of launching peacemaker fighters that is
later destroyed the pc game supreme
commander has an experimental
submersible aircraft carrier the
Atlantis for the United Earth Federation
faction novelist G harry stein wrote the
star c invaders science fiction series
featuring the SS c VN USS Shenandoah in
the Star Trek novel strangers from the
sky the CSS delphinus was a submersible
multi-role ship of the 2040s
British television series UFO included
skydiver a submarine with a supersonic
fighter mounted on the bow the
television series voyage to the bottom
of the sea featured the nuclear-powered
sea view which could launch a
saucer-shaped nuclear-powered supersonic
flying sub the 1988 Commodore Amiga
video game f18 interceptor features a
fictional Soviet submarine aircraft
carrier as the point of origin from
where mig-29 and su-27 launch attacks
against the San Francisco Bay Area see
also list of submarine born aircraft
flying submarine airborne aircraft
carrier references further reading teri
see Treadwell strike from beneath the
sea a history of aircraft carrying
submarine tempus publishing limited 1999
external links type am submarine
aviation oddities