Unfortunately, the timing and the naval limitations treaties makes the following unlikely, but it's a cool what-if:
According to the book "The Treaty Navy" after shipbuilders finished converting the Lexington to a carrier, a consortium of US shipbuilders proposed building six more ships using the same hull and engines as "Four day liners"--ships that could sail passengers across the Atlantic in four days. As proposed, the liners would retain Lexington's flight deck, thus allowing passengers to be flown onto or off of the liners. The liners would be partially subsidized by the postal service because of their ability to move mail across the ocean quickly. Essentially, these guys were proposing six lightly civilianized aircraft carriers.
Given the Great Depression and the Washington Naval treaty, it's extremely unlikely that these things would actually get built, but there's nothing wrong with exploring an occasional "beta" universe. No need to tell me this is unlikely. I'm well aware of that. What I'm asking is: What would have happened if they (at least some of them) were built? Maybe the proposal got floated before the Lexington conversion was finished and the plan got enough political momentum to overcome the caution about skirting the naval limitation treaties.
The Brits would likely respond with their own "four day liners", or at least start to--the Great Depression would make that difficult. If the Brits and US were playing that game, other countries might try too--the French and maybe the Germans. If the US and Brits are claiming these things are passenger liners, it would be hard for them to turn around and say the Germans can't have them. On the other hand, I'm not sure the Germans were financially capable of building a "fast liner" in the later 1920s.
In any case, where does this scenario take us?
According to the book "The Treaty Navy" after shipbuilders finished converting the Lexington to a carrier, a consortium of US shipbuilders proposed building six more ships using the same hull and engines as "Four day liners"--ships that could sail passengers across the Atlantic in four days. As proposed, the liners would retain Lexington's flight deck, thus allowing passengers to be flown onto or off of the liners. The liners would be partially subsidized by the postal service because of their ability to move mail across the ocean quickly. Essentially, these guys were proposing six lightly civilianized aircraft carriers.
Given the Great Depression and the Washington Naval treaty, it's extremely unlikely that these things would actually get built, but there's nothing wrong with exploring an occasional "beta" universe. No need to tell me this is unlikely. I'm well aware of that. What I'm asking is: What would have happened if they (at least some of them) were built? Maybe the proposal got floated before the Lexington conversion was finished and the plan got enough political momentum to overcome the caution about skirting the naval limitation treaties.
The Brits would likely respond with their own "four day liners", or at least start to--the Great Depression would make that difficult. If the Brits and US were playing that game, other countries might try too--the French and maybe the Germans. If the US and Brits are claiming these things are passenger liners, it would be hard for them to turn around and say the Germans can't have them. On the other hand, I'm not sure the Germans were financially capable of building a "fast liner" in the later 1920s.
In any case, where does this scenario take us?