PA-58 Verdun aircraft carrier

Only until modern anti air systems came into use, making all of them death traps against a modern opponent.

Even the A-10 has barely been used in any opposed airspace in the last twenty years.

The last time the US went up against a serious air defence network was the Vietnam war, so none of the current crop of US CAS aircraft have been used in opposed airspace. Even then, the A-1 and OV-10 weren't used to bomb Hanoi. But they did give good service south of the DMZ - you know, in the counter-insurgency role that is specifically what we were talking about. 1950s Algeria is a somewhat more permissive air defence environment than strafing Soviet tanks in the Fulda Gap.
 
I've given up trying to upload the spreadsheet comparing the dimensions of the carriers. Perhaps the updated site will allow it.

In the meantime if anyone wants to see it, I will email it to them if they sent me a pm with their email address.

For what its worth PA58's waterline length and beam were about half way between an Essex class refitted to SCB.27C standard and CVA.01. That is:

Essex SCB.27C - 820ft x 103ft

PA58 - 859ft 7in x 112ft

CVA.01 - 890ft x 122ft
 
Comparison of Aircraft Carriers 1.3.jpg
 

Archibald

Banned
Brining back this topic. I naively believed that France had taken a licence from the USN and used Essex or Midway catapults, but I was wrong. (the Charles de Gaulle actually has American catapults 75 m in length, hence shortened Nimitz catapults which are 90 m long)

I've just discovered (to my amazement) that France took a licence from British steam catapults for Foch and Clemenceau. Those catapults were BS-5A similar to Ark Royal and Eagle refit in the 60's. Which meant that all four British and French carriers had similar catapults. Not bad for inter-operability.

http://warships1discussionboards.yuku.com/topic/22160/British-Catapult-questions?page=#.WAT8TCQwAaI

My take for Anglo-French carriers is to start from the similar catapults, then similar interceptors.
France used the mostly obsolote Crusader while RN spey-ized Phantoms.

So how about this ?

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1406.msg12259.html#msg12259

In the early 60's SNECMA needed to learn about turbofans to replace their ATAR and took a TF-30 lience. The (crappy) TF-30 powered a host of Dassault prototypes but the indigenous M-53 was prefered in the end.
The Spey would have been much better, and it was actually builf for Allison as the A-7's TF-41.

A Two-sader powered by a French TF-41 and with A-7 subsystems to cut costs might be a winner. The aircraft would be build by Shorts in GB and Aerospatiale in France (OTL Aerospatiale did try to licence-build A-7s in 1972 but Dassault Super Etendard prevailed). The Jaguar would be probably dead (not a great loss).
 
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