A CTOL carrier aircraft, in use by 5 or 6 countries...

Historically some aircraft would be:
1. F4U Corsair
2. A1 Skyraider
3. Buccaneer
4. A4 Skyhawk
5. Sea Vixen
6. S2 Tracker
7. E2 Hawkeye
8. F8/A7
9. Super Entenard
10. SH3 SeaKing helicopter
11. C2 greyhound
12. Sea Venom
 
The odd thing here is that if they could've actually made a Sea Harrier-knockoff, then that would've been about the thing they needed: just something to provide a CAP over a SAG while it's out of land-based air cover.

I wonder how it would perform in a defensive strategy in the Black Sea or the Baltic, maybe even the Med or the Pacific?
 
Historically some aircraft would be:
1. F4U Corsair
2. A1 Skyraider
3. Buccaneer
4. A4 Skyhawk
5. Sea Vixen
6. S2 Tracker
7. E2 Hawkeye
8. F8/A7
9. Super Entenard
10. SH3 SeaKing helicopter
11. C2 greyhound
12. Sea Venom

Most of these aircraft have only served on carriers of one or two navies.
 
Most of these aircraft have only served on carriers of one or two navies.

Another candidate for 5/6 nations to have used on carriers, next to the S2 tracker (see my previous post) would be the TBF Avenger; my count on them is 5 different nations' carriers.

There are a whole bunch of airplanes which saw service on 3 different countries' carriers, like the Dauntless and the SB2-C.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I wonder how it would perform in a defensive strategy in the Black Sea or the Baltic, maybe even the Med or the Pacific?

Well, the Black Sea and Baltic are still in range of land-based air. But the Pacific on the other hand might be somewhere where it's of use. Just throwing out a hypothetical: let's suppose an order comes down to create an anti-ship cordon at the Aleutians (for whatever reason) so the Soviet subs can have a safe haven north of them. (who cares if it would work)

An amphibious group would do the landing with one of these embarking aircraft to attempt to hold off any attackers that may come until they can set up SAM batteries on shore, or to try and bushwack any search aircraft that come too close.

Another candidate for 5/6 nations to have used on carriers, next to the S2 tracker (see my previous post) would be the TBF Avenger; my count on them is 5 different nations' carriers.

There are a whole bunch of airplanes which saw service on 3 different countries' carriers, like the Dauntless and the SB2-C.

That was something I never thought about...an insane amount of ex-WWII aircraft were used in the immediate postwar period by colonial powers. The French were using American divebombers of some kind during the initial phase of the Indochina war, I'm pretty sure. They even stopped and reloaded due to attrition losses, according to Carriers in Combat by Hearn.
 
Most of these aircraft have only served on carriers of one or two navies.


Thats why I picked them, they are all planes that were carrier based at one time or another. Given that fact other nations that operated CV's of some sort could buy them new or get them second hand from the original owners to operate on their CV's without having to build a new design.
 

wormyguy

Banned
The Soviets began development on a true VTOL rival to the Harrier, the Yakolev Yak-41, which was in the late stages of flight testing when it was canceled due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russians may later have tried to revive the project with the intention of selling to the Chinese, but had little luck.

yak141_17.jpg


Yak-41 next to a Yak-38.
 
The Bug wasn't introduced until '83 IOTL. Would a Bucc fit on a Clemenceau-class CV? I agree that a Bug/Bucc CVW would be excellent. :D

I think so- IIRC, the British flew the Bucc off Hermes, so it'd probably fit on a Clemenceau, which is a little bigger, assuming the flight deck, arresting gear, and catapults are up to the plane, or that they could be tweaked to make it work- don't have access to the relevant stats on the plane & carrier at the moment. However, the Hornet would require major modifications to work with a Clemenceau- the issue came up in the thread about RN Crusaders a couple months ago- essentially when they trialed a F-18 aboard one of them, it was found that although the F-18 could take-off and land, it wasn't worth the trouble, since it would have an incredibly restricted max take-off weight- even carrying only enough fuel to get up to altitude and tank, it couldn't even carry a full air-to-air loadout, let alone any sort of useful strike package.

However, for something like a CVA-01 or a Midway in someone else's navy, that would be an interesting airgroup.
 
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