Sauragnmon wrote:
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Has anybody ever thought of these designs, and building a model of them? I know the Germans did design studies on them, has anybody done scratchbuilds, and do they have pictures? I'm looking for some inspiration and ideas.
Thanks
American firm of Gibbs and Cox designed a very large hybrid battleship carrier for the Soviet Union in late 1930s. I can't find a picture of it right now, but it had 12 16" guns in 4 triple turrets in the Montana layout. The smallish flight deck sits on top of the superstructure, and stretch between the 1fore and aft 16" turret groups. But it is a real flight deck for launching and receiving real wheeled aircraft, not just a flat parking space for float planes like on Ise and Hyuaga. The battleship tower mast and stack is offset to the starboard. The hanger is accommodated inside the supersturcture beneath the flight deck. The flight deck does not span the entire width of the ship. Instead the secondary armament is arrayed on either side of the hanger/superstructure in a layout similar to contemporary American battleships.
The idea was to provide the Soviets with a multi-purpose core to their nascent pacific fleet. This would give the Soviets a jump start in their efforts to add to the headaches of the IJN. But despite the huge size of this ship (70,000 ton +), the size of the flight deck and air wing is still really pretty pathetic. Considering the holocaust of burning aviation fuel and exploding aviation munition that usually befalls a heavily hit carrier, giving a battleship such an aviation facility must seriously reduce its actual combat value.