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I don't know if this is real, but does anyone have any insights as to what it is?

I've heard that the first experimental aircraft carriers were actually Zeppelin types but I didn't think any were ever fully realized as they were slow and easy to shoot down.

1228414091519.jpg

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That is most definitely not real; however the US Navy had two airship capable of carrying aircraft- one was the USS Macon and I can't remember the other- Akron maybe? Too lazy to look it up.

The Kriegsmarine only ever built the Graf Zepplin carrier, but it was a conventional carrier and never completed. Probably comparable to the British carriers of the time. Even if they had completed the ship, it would have been useless given Germany's situation... and also the fact that Goering did everything possible to hinder the project didn't help. It was however, used as lumber storage warehouse before being scuttled.

The Soviet later refloated it for a time before sinking her as a target ship.

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I don't know if this is real, but does anyone have any insights as to what it is?

I've heard that the first experimental aircraft carriers were actually Zeppelin types but I didn't think any were ever fully realized as they were slow and easy to shoot down.

1228414091519.jpg

The U.S.S. Akron & Macon were the World's only aerial aircraft carriers. They were each capable of carrying 4 F9C-2 Sparrowhawk biplane fighters, to protect themselves. Both crashed and their end signaled the end of the rigid airship in U.S. service, thereafter the U.S. would only ever use blimps. See here for more info:

http://www.ciderpresspottery.com/ZLA/great...kron_Macon.html

HTH,

Rick

Edited by madmanrick
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The U.S.S. Akron & Macon were the World's only aerial aircraft carriers.

Rick

You are not quite correct on two counts......

The British carried out experiments using the R-33 airship and a Gloster Grebe fighter - launching and recovering them.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R33

Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-12878,_Englisches_Marineluftschiff_R33.jpg

In the 1930's the Soviets experimented with aerial aircraft carriers - except they weren't lighter-than-air.

The final one in the 'Zveno' series - the 'Aviamatka-PVO' - consisted of a Tupolev TB-3 bomber 'mother ship' with FIVE fighters attached for self-defence.

The 2 x I-16s & 2 x I-5s attached to the wings could only detach - but the centre I-Z fighter was on a retractable trapeze and could be recovered.

Aviamatka_01.jpg

Zveno_31B.jpg

Ken

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Obviously a carrier like the Agaion from Ace Combat 6 is impossible, but in Ace combat 3 there's a cutscene of an airship-like aircraft carrier receiving Cynthia in a R-103 Delphinus, and then while she's on the bridge, aircraft launch from a runway underneath.

And does anyone know how the heck the Banshee from Yukikaze was powered?

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That is cool is what that is. :thumbsup:

Lets not forget the Goblin which was a fighter designed to be carried by bombers, it could "take off" and "land" on a trapeze under the bomber.

For other fictional airship carriers there was a game called Crimson skies that featured fighter carrying airships. It was a rather neat art deco style flight sim.

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I don't know if this is real, but does anyone have any insights as to what it is?

1228414091519.jpg

The lower one looks very much like a model for the the German version of the sky carrier in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Angelina Jolie. There wasn't one in the movie (a German version) but had there been one I expect it would have looked a lot like this.

Edited by David Walker
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Is it just me? Am I the only one who understood that Aerodrew was being facetious with the original post?

Seriously, I thought that was pretty funny! Must be a KC-135 Crew Chief thing! (Remember, that's what I used to do before I became a Flight Engineer.)

Mark

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The final one in the 'Zveno' series - the 'Aviamatka-PVO' - consisted of a Tupolev TB-3 bomber 'mother ship' with FIVE fighters attached for self-defence.

The 2 x I-16s & 2 x I-5s attached to the wings could only detach - but the centre I-Z fighter was on a retractable trapeze and could be recovered.

Aviamatka_01.jpg

Zveno_31B.jpg

Ken

If anyone is interested in this, check out the In-Progress forum, Lucien Harpress is scratch-building one of these :cheers:

:cheers:

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If anyone is interested in this, check out the In-Progress forum, Lucien Harpress is scratch-building one of these :thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

Lucien is doing the 'Zveno-7' - a TB-3 with two underwing I-16 on trapeze's that could be launched and recovered.

There were 9 different 'Zveno' combinations - I did the 'Zveno-1' (TB-1 with 2 x I-4 fighters) plus the 'Aviamatka' shown above.....

They are all listed here - together with the Aviamatka build.

The 'Zveno-1' build is here.....

zveno02.jpg

Ken

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Seriously, I thought that was pretty funny! Must be a KC-135 Crew Chief thing! (Remember, that's what I used to do before I became a Flight Engineer.)

Mark

Well then, that will explain my answer. As a KC-135 depot engineer I never understood what the boomers wanted to really do with the airplane.

Happy Hanukkah to all the Chosen People!

Merry Christmas to the inheritors

Happy holidays to the rest

Tom

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  • 2 weeks later...
Is it just me? Am I the only one who understood that Aerodrew was being facetious with the original post?

Seriously, I thought that was pretty funny! Must be a KC-135 Crew Chief thing! (Remember, that's what I used to do before I became a Flight Engineer.)

Mark

Although I'm not going to disagree about your comment on KC-135 Crew Chiefs(you should see some of the guys I work with) I wasn't being facetious with the question on this aircraft, as it piqued my interest having seen something like it before, and Flankerman's post pretty much nailed it.

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That is cool is what that is. :worship:

Lets not forget the Goblin which was a fighter designed to be carried by bombers, it could "take off" and "land" on a trapeze under the bomber.

For other fictional airship carriers there was a game called Crimson skies that featured fighter carrying airships. It was a rather neat art deco style flight sim.

The Goblin never really worked. It took an expert test pilot to hook onto the trapeze and even they only managed to do it without damaging the aircraft a couple of times.

However, the RF-84E was used operationally as a parasite reconnaissance aircraft off of the RB-36s for a number of years and made many in flight attachments to the B-36. It's very likely that they were used to overfly the PRC and to make close coastal approaches to the Soviet Union in the late '50s.

The USS Los Angeles, ZR-3 was used for testing the launch and recovery of fixed wing aircraft for the Akron/Macon program.

Oh, yeah, unless that flight deck on the pictured Zep was made of styrofoam, it would never lift. Maybe not even styrofoam! Neat model, though.

Edited by Grey Ghost 531
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Obviously a carrier like the Agaion from Ace Combat 6 is impossible, but in Ace combat 3 there's a cutscene of an airship-like aircraft carrier receiving Cynthia in a R-103 Delphinus, and then while she's on the bridge, aircraft launch from a runway underneath.

And does anyone know how the heck the Banshee from Yukikaze was powered?

The Agaion, is that the one that looks like a giant flying wing with a runway in the center?

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The Agaion, is that the one that looks like a giant flying wing with a runway in the center?

Yeah. There is no way that forty jet engines burning at afterburner could keep that think aloft for any decent flight time. Now, imagine instead a nuclear reactor powering a quartet of gigantic C-130 style props.

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Did none of you watch "Captain Scarlet" as children? Cloudbase was a nuclear powered airborne carrier that had a compliment of six Angel Fighters.

On a (Slightly) more serious note plans were drawn-up to carry two Folland Gnat Lightweight fighters under the wings of a Vulcan on the Skybolt Pylons. I had plans somewhere, but cannot find them.

Phil

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