When you think of aircraft carriers, many of you probably imagine a monstrous ship with
an entire airfield on board, rather than a huge blimp capable of housing several planes
at once. But people in the 19th century apparently
thought otherwise. That is why the aircraft carrier in our usual understanding appeared
even later than the first attempts to fit airplanes into a giant oval floating in the
sky. In 1852, Meunier, a Frenchman, made the first
flight on a new type of aircraft - an airship, after which it was replaced by a military
subspecies with an electric engine, thanks to the joint efforts of two inventors named
Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. They made flying an airship fully controllable. This
happened in 1884. And while the Germans were busy poring over
their zeppelin, starting in 1899, and Count von Zepellin was complaining about having
had squandered his entire fortune on a project that was named after him, French engineer
Alberto Santos-Dumont was already admiring the Eiffel Tower from a bird's eye view from
an airship at a speed just over 13 miles per hour.
After engineers tested the zeppelins, they realized that they would be able to "haul"
several aircraft at once, which at the time were much smaller in size, but had a much
shorter flight range. A special crane was attached to the zeppelin,
which lowered the biplane down, after which it could detach itself and fly on its own.
Landing was done similarly - the biplane reduced its speed, aligned with the airship, clung
to the crane and ascended inside the hull of the flying machine.
Airships were able to establish themselves as a reliable military platform because of
their fuel efficiency, range, and huge payload. These soaring giants were not only cost-effective,
but also provided a visual advantage, intimidating enemies with their daunting dimensions.
But it was the area occupied by the rigid airship that made it vulnerable to even the
simplest enemy aircraft. England was the first country to attempt to solve this problem by
building its own airship. It was easily able to accommodate three Sopwith Camel biplanes
attached under the hull. This resulted in four Vickers 23 class airships, but by the
1920s they were all scrapped. The U.S. Navy's Aeronautics Directorate took
the Allied experience into account and decided to design its own airships, the USS Akron
and USS Macon. The Akron class airships were built in the
early 1930s, and the first member of this "family" – the Akron, the world's largest
helium airship – made its maiden flight in September 1931.
These celestial Atlanteans were intended as a kind of "all-seeing eye" for the Navy to
extend the range over which U.S. military scouts could operate from beyond the horizon.
The airship was intended to be the "mother ship" for a squadron of aircraft used for
both reconnaissance and self-defense of the airship against enemy aircraft.
A military program to build two rigid airships of this class began immediately after World
War I. In 1917, a German L 49 airship was shot down
in France and was recovered in near-perfect condition. The U.S. immediately realized that
it could demand several German airships as reparations, but in the end, the parties agreed
that Germany would build and pay for an airship transferred to the Americans, and they, in
turn, would build one using their own resources. In July 1919, the U.S. Navy ordered components
from an aircraft factory in Philadelphia to build a new airship. But before long, the
plan with the German party was canceled when the Royal Navy rejected the order for four
rigid ships, resulting in the uncompleted ZR-2 airship being sold to the States.
In 1921, the ZR-2 failed to withstand a catastrophe caused by structural failure and crashed,
with only five of those on board surviving. The team in charge of the ZR-1 decided to
use helium amid problems with hydrogen and its explosive nature. But its shortage and
high price forced the airship to exhaust a considerable part of global reserves of this
gas. In 1923 the ZR-1 became the USS Shenandoah,
and a year later its "sibling", the USS Los Angeles, came into service.
While there was a critical shortage of gas, the U.S. planned to use these vehicles one
at a time. Shenandoah hit its "air iceberg" in 1925,
in an incident in Ohio. As a result, the construction of two new airships was approved as early
as 1926, and construction began in October 1928.
The contract was won by Goodyear-Zeppelin. A new hangar was built - Goodyear Airdock
in Akron, Ohio in 1929 for easy storage of vehicles.
Engineers decided to make the structure more robust by placing the duralumin frame rings,
connected by supports, farther apart than the single rings in earlier versions of airships.
But this made the frame of the American apparatuses noticeably heavier than the German ones.
A distinctive feature of the vehicle was also the engine compartment installed inside the
hull. In 1932, even the propellers were modified - instead of two-blade wooden propellers,
metal three-blade propellers were installed, which improved the Akron's fuel efficiency.
Together with a weight reduction of 7,940 pounds, this resulted in an increase in speed
to 87 miles per hour. The airship could hold up to five small planes,
which were lifted by a special device called a "trapeze". To avoid problems, the craft
had to take off into the air. Only then would the airship be met by the air group.
The demise of the Akron took the U.S. Army by surprise. On April 3, 1933, the behemoth
set out to calibrate radio direction finders in New England, but on the way it was caught
in a night storm and crashed off the coast of New Jersey. Seventy-three people on board
were killed. Among them was William Moffett, chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics.
The construction of the Akron's "counterpart", called the Macon, began in the fall of 1931.
It was "christened" in March 1933, and as early as the end of June of the same year
it left for Lakehurst. A year later the ship participated in a series
of exercises in which it was paired with an aircraft on a reconnaissance mission, and
the airship was used as a hovering aircraft carrier. The Macon was able to prove its versatility
by flagging the position of the crews of two aircraft lost in the middle of the sea as
part of an exercise before their crew was rescued, and it also located and retained
sight of the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier. In 1935 the Macon took part in another exercise,
but on the way back to Moffett Field it lost one of its stabilizers and made a forced landing
at Cape Sur. It then sank resulting in the loss of two crew members.
The main reason for the crash, according to experts, was due to a design flaw in the model
- shortened tail fins. This step was taken to make the ship's lower keel clearly visible.
Engineers made the same mistake earlier in the Akron airship.
It took the U.S. Navy about 30 years to psychologically recover from the Akron and Macon debacle.
After recovering, they launched their next project.
In the 1970s, the U.S. Army experimented with converting one of its largest aircraft into
a hovering aircraft carrier with parasitic fighters that could be deployed right in the
air. The project was called Airborne Aircraft Carrier.
Since the idea of fixing fighters directly under the 747 was immediately dismissed by
the engineers due to the additional resistance interfering with the aerodynamics of the plane,
they had to make the planes "small enough" to fit inside the Boeing.
Up to 10 micro-fighters were meant to fit inside the pressurized compartment. At the
same time, each was suspended on a "conveyor system". Several fighters were positioned
above one of the two special launch bays. Manipulators lowered the plane as close to
the compartment as possible, at which point it would open and the microfighter could fly.
Boeing experts claimed that it would take no more than 80 seconds to deploy the two
fighters. But to retrieve the fighters, they would have to dock with the refueling arm.
Naturally, if there was a need to rearm, the planes would also return back aboard the 747.
It would take up to 10 minutes to equip the fighter and get it ready for new missions.
The 747 also carried some other "goodies", such as extra ammunition, spare parts for
emergency repairs, and, of course, a generous supply of fuel. All this was handled by a
crew of 44 men, whose accommodation was planned in sleeping "compartments" with a common recreation
room. One would think it amazing how much could
be crammed into a 747. And the concept would have been given the green light only if its
"belly" fighters were implemented successfully, with a wingspan not exceeding 16 feet and
weighing three times less than the weight of the F-15 Eagle.
Although Boeing experts insisted on launching the project no later than the 1980s, it was
never implemented. This was primarily due to the total uselessness of the microfighters
compared to their fourth-generation "siblings". A little later, the Air Force did apply the
concept of a "giant carrier aircraft", but only this time with unmanned drones. That's
what we're going to talk about now. With the change of the decade, military trends
change as well. Where once it was considered futuristic to load one's aircraft to the brim
with miniature fighters, that idea has now been replaced by more maneuverable and cunning
drones. Since 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense
has been actively exploring the prospect of deploying UAVs directly from aircraft. Dynetics'
X-61A Gremlins drones were the topic at hand. In March 2017, the U.S. Department of Defense
DARPA commissioned Dynetics and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to design the next generation
of flying aircraft carriers. They were based on the C-130 Hercules carrier aircraft, which
became a hit among American military aviation and an icon for all fans of popular computer
and console shooters - be it Call of Duty, Battlefield or even the retired, but not forgotten
by fans -Medal of Honor. Companies spent a year developing an advanced
system for launching and collecting UAVs right in the air from the C-130. The first phase
included suggestions to modify the tail section of the aircraft to make it easier to pick
up drones returning from their missions. The main goal of the project was the ability
to effectively neutralize enemy air defenses, remotely collect intelligence and quickly
destroy various strategically important targets. Given the fact that at the same time, the
U.S. was developing a new Thunderdrone UAV, made in modular form and capable of creating
a swarm of drones with other devices of similar type, the C-130 Hercules carrier aircraft
could be equipped with an army of such drones in the future. And due to the low cost of
production in the event of multiple losses, the monetary loss to the U.S. military would
be minimal. The Thunderdrone itself is capable of lifting
up to 120 pounds and flying a very impressive 310 miles away from the aircraft.
The total "range" of the UAV is enough to cover a distance of 620 miles. That means
the device will be able to fly out near Norfolk, Virginia, fly safely to Philadelphia Airport,
and successfully return back to its flying base.
In the fall of 2019, training tests involving C-130s and Gremlins drones were conducted,
during which the aircraft stayed in the air for 101 minutes before successfully landing
at one of the nearby airfields. The drone, on the other hand, was less fortunate
- it was destroyed because its parachute failed to deploy at the end of its hour and a half
flight. Further testing and combat tests will significantly
accelerate the development of future flying aircraft carriers, moving the process from
its standstill position. But the first combat-ready aircraft complex, in the best case scenario,
will appear only in a few years. It may seem that the idea of American flying
aircraft carriers gets postponed steadily every 30 years, however in reality it gets
new forms every time. So, sooner or later, we will start seeing these fancy "flying ships"
in the foreseeable future! What do you think about flying aircraft carriers?
Will they be able to take root among the types of aircraft we are already accustomed to?
Which concept did you like best? Do write in the comments!
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