Initial thoughts
Hey everybody, I'm looking at trying my hand at a few, brief atl, where, among other things, the US gets it's shit together with respect to combat readiness and inter-service cooperation. I'm also of a mind to improve naval aviation by circumventing the naval treaties, and stuff like that.
I don't want to end up writing an Ameriwank, but my goal going into to this is to get a better starting forces readiness over otl for the USA.
One thing I want to have as a common POD, is having Howard Hughes altered into someone that has interest in naval aviation, as well as float planes, seaplanes, and amphibious planes.
There was a thread recently that asked about something I had not previously heard of, something called a Flying Deck Cruiser and that inspired me to start thinking about alternatives to that.
So, in this first thread, I'm going to try to identify problems with the FDC, and get around those, and get us to a place where we can get better Naval Aviation training prewar.
So, a few of the common problems with any type of earlier/additional carriers, is that all of them are warships, and thus would count against the tonnage allotments allowed by treaty, and that they would cost money to build, maintain, upgrade/refit/rebuild and operate, all of which has to come out of the navies budget.
My proposed solution is to take a rich & famous American, Howard Hughes, and have him get an earlier start of the Hughes Aircraft Company of OTL, and marry that with my fictional Hughes Shipping Company & Hughes Shipbuilding Company, that builds really big, impressive merchantmen...
Before I get started on that, though, I need help finding a shipyard in the 1900-1925 time-frame, that might be suitable for purchase and construction of what I am looking for. What I am looking for is an 'ego class' project, one like "To build the largest Merchant ships in the World" type thing, as both Sr and Jr wanted to be the best at what they did.
From the Wiki, for the Liberty Ships, I have these specifications:
So the values in red I need folks to discuss and post for themselves, the only dimension I really, really want to keep in the 100 ft beam, as this will allow for follow on classes to look very similar in scale.
We are naturally going into the whole 'converted merchantmen into cheap, barely survivable carrier trope', but here I am going to create a reason for such a historically huge merchant ship to come into existence, and be in ongoing production, in the early 1930's, as an ego boost for Jr.
So, tell me what you think, and please offer advice on any dimensions for the "Hughes Titan class cargo ship" For instance, as the ship is larger and wider than a liberty ship, I gave 4 more boilers, and and extra engine to these monsters, is that enough to maintain speed? I also took a stab at the increase in cargo capacity and displacement, are those numbers anywhere close to what they should be?
I don't want to end up writing an Ameriwank, but my goal going into to this is to get a better starting forces readiness over otl for the USA.
One thing I want to have as a common POD, is having Howard Hughes altered into someone that has interest in naval aviation, as well as float planes, seaplanes, and amphibious planes.
There was a thread recently that asked about something I had not previously heard of, something called a Flying Deck Cruiser and that inspired me to start thinking about alternatives to that.
So, in this first thread, I'm going to try to identify problems with the FDC, and get around those, and get us to a place where we can get better Naval Aviation training prewar.
So, a few of the common problems with any type of earlier/additional carriers, is that all of them are warships, and thus would count against the tonnage allotments allowed by treaty, and that they would cost money to build, maintain, upgrade/refit/rebuild and operate, all of which has to come out of the navies budget.
My proposed solution is to take a rich & famous American, Howard Hughes, and have him get an earlier start of the Hughes Aircraft Company of OTL, and marry that with my fictional Hughes Shipping Company & Hughes Shipbuilding Company, that builds really big, impressive merchantmen...
Before I get started on that, though, I need help finding a shipyard in the 1900-1925 time-frame, that might be suitable for purchase and construction of what I am looking for. What I am looking for is an 'ego class' project, one like "To build the largest Merchant ships in the World" type thing, as both Sr and Jr wanted to be the best at what they did.
From the Wiki, for the Liberty Ships, I have these specifications:
Since I have no knowledge about shipbuilding, I'm going to extrapolate from here...Class and type: Liberty ship class cargo ship
Displacement: 14,245 long tons (14,474 t)[2]
Length: 441 ft 6 in (134.57 m)
Beam: 56 ft 10.75 in (17.3 m)
Draft: 27 ft 9.25 in (8.5 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 11–11.5 knots (20.4–21.3 km/h; 12.7–13.2 mph)
- Two oil-fired boilers
- triple-expansion steam engine
- single screw, 2,500 hp (1,900 kW)
Range: 20,000 nmi (37,000 km; 23,000 mi)
Capacity: 10,856 t (10,685 long tons) deadweight(DWT)[2]
Complement:
Armament: Stern-mounted 4-in (102 mm) deck gun for use against surfaced submarines, variety of anti-aircraft guns
Class and type: Hughes Titan class cargo ship
Displacement: 20,000 long tons
Length: 650 ft
Beam: 100 ft
Draft: 30-35 ft
Propulsion:
- Six oil-fired boilers
- Two triple-expansion steam engine
- Twin screw, 5,000 hp
Speed: 11–11.5 knots
Range: 20,000 nmi
Capacity: 20,000 t deadweight
So the values in red I need folks to discuss and post for themselves, the only dimension I really, really want to keep in the 100 ft beam, as this will allow for follow on classes to look very similar in scale.
We are naturally going into the whole 'converted merchantmen into cheap, barely survivable carrier trope', but here I am going to create a reason for such a historically huge merchant ship to come into existence, and be in ongoing production, in the early 1930's, as an ego boost for Jr.
So, tell me what you think, and please offer advice on any dimensions for the "Hughes Titan class cargo ship" For instance, as the ship is larger and wider than a liberty ship, I gave 4 more boilers, and and extra engine to these monsters, is that enough to maintain speed? I also took a stab at the increase in cargo capacity and displacement, are those numbers anywhere close to what they should be?
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