The Flying Deck Cruiser

So noted. However, those ships had the guns, fairly logically located just fore and aft of the island, not in turrets at the bow of the ship, interrupting the flight deck. Such a design as this was obviously stupid, even to most of the minds of the day.

Remember, this isn't a cruiser with additional seaplane facilities, here the deck is supposed to be an integral part of the ship's operation, yet its utility for such a role is obviously curtailed by the dumb setup.

Kaga was done this way at first in 1930

640px-Kaga_Ikari_1930_B.jpg


Triple deck, the lower deck could be used for take off, but was only 180 ft long, vs 560 for the main deck.

That cruiser doesn't look that bad in comparison.
The US carriers also had open bows, but for catapult operation from the hangar
 
Angled flight decks aren't a panacea. Before the mid-1940s, carrierborne aircraft were too light to reliably fly through the turbulence caused by the island, so the angled flight deck's advantages would be more than offset by disadvantages.

Alright then, what if you eliminate the island entirely? There were some carriers (both paper designs and actual ships) that had small, retractable islands that would become flush with the deck during flight operations. Perhaps someone decides that the drawbacks of not having a large, permanent island could be made up for with the faster aircraft launches and recoveries.
 
Alright then, what if you eliminate the island entirely? There were some carriers (both paper designs and actual ships) that had small, retractable islands that would become flush with the deck during flight operations. Perhaps someone decides that the drawbacks of not having a large, permanent island could be made up for with the faster aircraft launches and recoveries.
Tried repeatedly, even in the jet era, and always turned out to be a bad idea.

It also happens that small, light aircraft don't need an angled flight deck for simultaneous launch and recovery. There's only really a very narrow window in the early 1940s where simultaneous operations are difficult but the aircraft aren't suitable for an angled flight deck.
 
Kaga was done this way at first in 1930

640px-Kaga_Ikari_1930_B.jpg


Triple deck, the lower deck could be used for take off, but was only 180 ft long, vs 560 for the main deck.

That cruiser doesn't look that bad in comparison.
The US carriers also had open bows, but for catapult operation from the hangar

Akagi initially had the same design, as did the RN's Courageous and Glorious. All were converted battlecruisers. Actually the placement of the 8-inch guns on the Japanese carriers makes some sense if one anticipates the possibility that they (as scouts) may be forced to engage in a surface action against other scouts and need to launch/recover aircraft at the same time. Their position below the main flight deck in turrets and casemates would not interfere with air operations nearly as much as the turrets on the US Lexingtons. This proved to be a faulty concept by the late 1930's and the Japanese carriers were reconstructed with full length flight decks and the turrets (but not the casemates) removed. It is noteworthy that even that late, both the US and Japan retained useful main guns on these, their largest and most capable carriers.
 
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