The Need for Speed: Technology Thread

Delta Force

Banned
Sorry for the long delay on an update. I realized that as we get further away from the point of divergence aircraft and other technological development would differ further from reality, so that's why it has been taking me some time to update. Fortunately, I have come across an excellent resource for anyone doing a timeline where aerospace PoDs play a major role. The Secret Projects forum has thousands of projects that were proposed at one point or another.

I have been reading through the website for the past several weeks for projects and concepts to implement in the timeline. In the future I will also include links to some of the information I find in the articles as well as image sources, for those who are interested in reading more about the real life machines and events featured in the update, where applicable. I might also go back and do this for previous updates, although that might be a more complicated undertaking (and a more difficult one due to the inability of editing older posts).
 

Delta Force

Banned
Eyes Turned Northwards

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The Fleet Finch was the first Canadian designed and produced aircraft to enter
widespread military service. The type served from 1939 to 1947, helping to train
pilots as part of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Photo credit.

While Canada's rapidly rose as an aerospace power in the late 1950s, the infrastructure behind it was decades in the making. Until the 1940s Canada's aviation industry was relatively small and most aircraft were of foreign design. The outbreak of World War II saw Canada take on a vital role in the Allied war effort. The poor weather and constant battles over the skies of Britain made air training impossible. With its safe skies, strong industrial base, and proximity to both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of operation Canada became the primary location for the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the largest air training program in history. Tens of thousands of aircrew, thousands of aircraft, and hundreds of facilities were involved in the program, injecting billions of dollars into what would become the "Aerodrome of Democracy". While foreign designed aircraft remained the most common sight in the skies over Canada, several hundred Canadian designed and built Fleet Finch trainers were used in the program. The first Canadian all-metal passenger aircraft, the de Havilland Canada DHC-2, flew shortly after the war and remains in service with commercial and military operators.

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In 1940 Henry Larsen led the crew of the RCMPV St. Roch on first Canadian
expedition to the Northwest Passage. Photo credit.

As part of it's contributions to the war effort, Canada also established research facilities in several fields, including nuclear physics, radio communications, and flight research. Several teams were folded into the Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment (CARDE) at the end of World War II to maintain Canada's scientific infrastructure. Although CARDE's research interests varied throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, continuing Soviet advances in nuclear weapons and delivery platforms began to concern the organization and Canadian defense planners. The same geography that had kept Canada isolated from attack for hundreds of years was the same geography that would doom it in the event of a Third World War. This new threat came not from the southern plains, nor the Pacific or Atlantic, but from the vast ice and tundra of the Arctic. To secure itself and North America, Canada turned its eyes northwards, to the top of the world.

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I thought this would make a nice update for getting the timeline back up and running. I plan on having more frequent updates now that much of the research work is out of the way.

Edited to correct mistake pointed out by Just Leo.
 
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Delta Force

Banned
Welcome back! Hope you can get around to writing about a Second Korean War in the TL later.

Thanks for the reply. That Second Korean War will come along a bit later (and in the political thread), but until then there will be updates on the British and French aviation sectors, and a few others.

You've snubbed the Noorduyn Norseman. The Beav was only the first all-metal bush plane.

Thanks for pointing that out, I've corrected it.
 

Delta Force

Banned
The Top of the World

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Although a secondary front in the Pacific War, the Arctic territories of Canada and
America are now crucial to the defense of North America. Photo Credit.

Conventional maps are laid out in an East-West fashion, and for most of human history transportation was only possible between the East and West. However, movement is also possible across the poles, which despite their exaggerated appearance on most maps provide a far shorter radius of travel. Due to this exaggeration, many fail to realize that the major cities of Western civilization are less than three thousand miles away from each other over the North Pole - hours by aircraft, minutes by missile. In a 1935 public appearance, the last before his death, air strategist Billy Mitchell testified before Congress that "in the future, whoever controls Alaska will hold the world." Less than seven years later, the Arctic became a battlefield in the struggle between the Axis and Allied powers. In a surprise move, the forces of Imperial Japan seized Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, placing a North American territory of the United States under foreign occupation for the first time since the War of 1812. The islands were eventually retaken by Canadian and American forces after a year of fighting against the Japanese and the elements, giving both nations their first taste of military operations in the Arctic. Equipped with this hard won knowledge, the Alaska-Canada Highway, several Arctic airbases, and a spirit of cooperation, the groundwork for what would become NORAD's Arctic defense network had been laid down.

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The core of an early Army Nuclear Power Program reactor. Providing several
megawatts of power and vast quantities of steam, such reactors significantly reduce
the complexity of supplying military forces in remote locations. Photo Credit.

The technological advantage the Western Allies enjoyed over the Soviets allowed a brief period to develop and refine techniques for operations in the unforgiving Arctic, where simply starting an aircraft engine is fraught with difficulty. Jet fuel is difficult to ignite in the Arctic freeze, requiring early turbojet engines to be started with gasoline. Even starting an engine is no guarantee of success, for if the engine is left unheated pistons, engine blocks, and fan blades can crack and even violently blow apart. Hydraulics, fuel systems, and avionics are also at risk of temperature related damage, and in some cases aircraft have left pieces of their tires frozen to the runway. These heat and energy requirements placed a major constraint on Arctic operations during World War II, but postwar developments in environmental control and nuclear energy allowed Army Nuclear Power Program reactors to use a few pounds of fissile material to provide the same heat and energy as several hundred thousand gallons of fuel by the late 1950s. The United States Air Force nuclear power program succeeded in developing reactor systems transportable by air, allowing virtually any location in the world to be supplied with nuclear power in a matter of weeks and putting technology developed for the XB-72 "atomic bomber" program to use. Along with the United States, Canada was another early adopter of this revolutionary technology, purchasing reactors from America to supply its own Arctic NORAD bases and putting both nations several years ahead of their European and Soviet counterparts. By the early 1960s all major USAF and RCAF bases were equipped with heated aircraft hangars and crew work and rest areas, significantly improving the operational readiness of F-102 A/B, F-108 Rapier, CF-100 Canuck, and CF-105 Arrow squadrons assigned to NORAD. The skies over the Arctic were secure, but Canada and the United States still had much work to do to secure the seas below and heavens above the frozen tundra and ice caps of the Arctic.

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Sources:
Air War Over the Arctic
A Unique Experiment
Target 110216
 

Delta Force

Banned
NATO's Arctic Guardian

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A Royal Canadian Navy CH-124 prepares to land on HMCS Assiniboine. Photo Credit.

Since the dawn of the Cold War, the Royal Canadian Navy has specialized in anti-submarine warfare. This specialty is a result of Canadian experience in World War II, in which Canadian naval forces played a crucial role defending North Atlantic shipping and coastlines against attack by German submarines and surface raiders. By the end of the war, the Royal Canadian Navy was the third largest in the world, behind the United States Navy and Royal Navy, although demobilization significantly decreased its size. With less ships, manpower, and money available to defend the North Atlantic, Canada was forced to develop innovative solutions. Following successful tests in the mid-1950s, helicopters were added to the arsenal of tools available to RCN destroyers and frigates. These capabilities were further enhanced with adoption of the Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King and the beartrap hauldown device, allowing helicopters to be safely recovered in even the most extreme weather conditions and sea states. Beartrap technology was eventually adopted by the USN, Royal Navy, and other fleets throughout the 1960s, significantly improving the ability of smaller vessels to operate as ASW platforms.

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HMCS Bonaventure in the early 1960s. Grumman Trackers and a Sikorsky Sea
King are visible on the deck park. Photo Credit.

While improvements in helicopter operations allowed the RCN to operate aircraft from vessels as small as the 2,260 ton St. Laurent class helicopter destroyers, the centerpiece of the Atlantic Fleet were two modernized Majestic class light aircraft carriers: HMCS Magnificent and HMCS Bonaventure. During the 1950s they operated McDonnell F2H-3 Banshees, Grumman CS2F Trackers, and Sikorsky HO4S helicopters in their carrier air group. In 1963 the Banshees were replaced with Folland Sea Mosquito IIs and the HO4S helicopters were replaced with new Sea Kings. RCN Sea Mosquito II pilots were greatly respected within NATO for operating high performance fighters off such short aircraft carriers, taking great pride in their nickname "crazy Canucks".

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HMCS Inuit in the mid-1980s. Photo Credit.

As proud as the Canadians were of their surface fleet, the true stars of the 1960s RCN were the six Inuit class nuclear attack submarines: Inuit, Anishinaabe, Blackfoot, Cree, Dene, and Onondaga. The Inuit class submarine was a Canadian developed and produced derivative of the Royal Navy's Valiant class, featuring a strengthened hull and other improvements for operations in Arctic conditions. Canadian interest in submarines began in the late 1950s, when an attempt was made to purchase Barbel class submarines from the United States. Unfortunately, the submarine had gone out of production as the USN began its transition to a nuclear navy. Feelers were sent out to the United Kingdom on the possibility of acquiring British submarines, and the Valiant class was recommended. While more expensive than the diesel-electric Oberon class, the design was recommended for procurement during Pearson's first post-election defense whitepaper due to its unlimited endurance, extremely useful for operations in the Arctic. Furthermore, the United Kingdom was willing to allow local production of significant components of the submarines, while Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was vehemently opposed to exporting any American nuclear reactors or knowledge. Rickover was also opposed to the rafting technology of the Valiant and Inuit class submarines, in which the machinery was placed atop a large raft to provide improved noise abatement, giving the British and Canadian submarines reduced noise signatures compared to American submarines. With the Parliament of Canada's vote in favor of the Inuit class, Canada became only the fourth nation to order a nuclear submarine.

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All that's left for Canada is the space program.

Links of Interest:
Beartrap (hauldown device)
A Brief History of Canadian Submarines
RN Submarines: Engineering History
Folland Gnat Derivatives
 
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This might be a good time to ask in a roundabout way what config and general parameters of technological design may constitute the Folland Sea Mosquito 2.

Every time I hear of Oberons, I recall a forlorn example tethered to a pier in Argentia, hefty hemp hawsers athwart, tensed as a bowstring to maintain semblence of sea-worthiness, knowing full well that a couple stout dockyard rats could gnaw through the charade in a trice, and a proud boat would slip these surly bonds and plummet to the depths. AArgh.
 

Delta Force

Banned
This might be a good time to ask in a roundabout way what config and general parameters of technological design may constitute the Folland Sea Mosquito 2.

The Folland Sea Mosquito II is a naval derivative of the Folland Mosquito II, a development of the Folland Gnat powered by a single Bristol Siddeley BS.75 engine. The Mosquito II and its training variant, the Fly, are fictional aircraft (although proposed in real life) that are broadly comparable to the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter and T-38 Talon for the Commonwealth nations. The Folland Mosquito II and Fly will both be part of the early updates for the United Kingdom.

Links:
Folland Gnat Derivatives
Bristol Siddeley BS.75 on Secret Projects
Bristol Siddeley BS.75 on Flight Global (Part 1)
Bristol Siddeley BS.75 on Flight Global (Part 2)
 
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Delta Force

Banned
Ah so the family tree goes

Gnat (trainer)> Mosquito II ( Fighter)> Fly (Trainer).

Yes, although if if you want to get really detailed the Folland Midge was developed into the Folland Gnat. The family tree thus looks like this:

Folland Midge > Folland Gnat family > Folland Mosquito II/Fly family

Of course with the changes between the Gnat and the Mosquito/Fly the relationship is more of a further development than a new variant. The two families are about as different as the F/A-18 Hornet and F/A-18 Super Hornet (in other words, physically they share only a few components, but outwardly you can see the resemblance), but within each family there is far more commonality.
 
Just curious, seeing as this is a competitor for the F 5, is it possible that the RCAF adopts this type rather than the same. If so maybe there's some potential as a supplement/replacement for the English Electric Lighting.
 

Delta Force

Banned
Just curious, seeing as this is a competitor for the F 5, is it possible that the RCAF adopts this type rather than the same. If so maybe there's some potential as a supplement/replacement for the English Electric Lighting.

The RCAF uses an Avro Arrow variant with simplified TSR-2 avionics for its tactical nuclear bomber role in Europe, as opposed to the F-104G Starfighters historically used. They never really adopt the early light fighters in this timeline. The historical F-5 purchase was controversial because the aircraft wasn't intended for frontline service with NATO air forces (it lacked speed, avionics, and payload compared to more typical frontline types). With the Soviet bomber threat remaining the primary threat for several years longer than in our timeline, the Canadians need big engine/big radar/big missile interceptors, not fighters.

The Lightning is replaced by the Avro Arrow in Royal Air Force service.
 
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