BlondieBC
Banned
Learning Curve.
OK, B-17 from Wiki is 268K each. Taking your figure of 12.5 B-17 to CL, this means a CL cost 3,350K. This may not be perfectly correct, but to keep the analysis apples to apple, I will assume it is correct. Taking the 0.43 from previous post, this means first Macon class is 1,440K.
Now take the B-17. We produce 11K, but lets pull back some for model changes and only use a run of 5000 for costing and the 85% learning curve. This means the first B-17 cost 2,000K to make, which is more than the Macon. The only reason the airship is more expensive is the short production run. Now I know we would never built 5000 airships, but if the run jumps to a few hundred ships, we could have easily afford to escort EVERY merchant convoy in WW2 with an airship at a quite reasonable cost, and actually made PROFIT compared to the save cargo that does not go to the bottom of the sea.
But from the above numbers and the previous post, an airship with a modest run of 40-70 gets us a ratio of about 2-3 bombers per airship. And since the airship can spend days above the convoy/port and a B-17 hours, the capital cost for full daylight protection is lower with airship than B-17. The USA missed a real opportunity by not funding airships in the 1920's and 1930's in a serious manner.
OK, B-17 from Wiki is 268K each. Taking your figure of 12.5 B-17 to CL, this means a CL cost 3,350K. This may not be perfectly correct, but to keep the analysis apples to apple, I will assume it is correct. Taking the 0.43 from previous post, this means first Macon class is 1,440K.
Now take the B-17. We produce 11K, but lets pull back some for model changes and only use a run of 5000 for costing and the 85% learning curve. This means the first B-17 cost 2,000K to make, which is more than the Macon. The only reason the airship is more expensive is the short production run. Now I know we would never built 5000 airships, but if the run jumps to a few hundred ships, we could have easily afford to escort EVERY merchant convoy in WW2 with an airship at a quite reasonable cost, and actually made PROFIT compared to the save cargo that does not go to the bottom of the sea.
But from the above numbers and the previous post, an airship with a modest run of 40-70 gets us a ratio of about 2-3 bombers per airship. And since the airship can spend days above the convoy/port and a B-17 hours, the capital cost for full daylight protection is lower with airship than B-17. The USA missed a real opportunity by not funding airships in the 1920's and 1930's in a serious manner.