747 Aircraft Carrier - As the United States withdraws from ongoing counterterrorism operations and returns to great power competition with nations such as China, the US is being forced to reevaluate its carrier force projection strategy. If US carriers find themselves on the fringes of such a conflict, the idea of a different type of aircraft carrier may be worth revisiting:
China's arsenal of hypersonic anti-ship missiles created an area-denial bubble that would prevent US carriers from sailing near China's coasts, effectively neutralizing America's ability to conduct offensive operations on the Chinese mainland. Without the US Navy's ability to exploit attack aircraft, combat operations in the Pacific would be extremely difficult. However there is
747 Aircraft Carrier
For such a conflict – the United States has experimented with this concept many times in the past and continues to pursue the idea today.
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The latest iteration of the flying aircraft carrier comes from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and only successfully tested in January of this year.
In January, DARPA successfully launched Dianetics' X-61A Gremlin UAV from the bay of a Lockheed Martin C-130A cargo plane. The program aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of low-cost combat drones that can be deployed and retrieved from cargo aircraft. DARPA envisions using cargo planes like the C-130 to deploy these drones when they are beyond enemy air defenses; Allowing drones to move forward and engage targets before returning to airspace around the "mothership" and being recaptured and sent home for service or repair.
Testing showed that the C-130 could activate the drone, but after an hour and a half of flight, its parachute failed to open, causing the drone to self-destruct. A follow-up test involving drone capture was planned for spring of this year, but has been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Between the success of this test and other wing drone programs like the Skyborg, the flying aircraft carrier concept has seen a resurgence in recent years and could potentially become a common aspect of the US Air Force.
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The Boeing 747 has already secured its place in the pantheon of large aircraft, from its huge success as a passenger plane to various government uses such as space shuttle taxis or cargo planes. The 747 has proven to be a very capable aircraft for a wide variety of applications, so it seemed logical that in the 1970s the US Air Force began experimenting with the idea of converting one of these large aircraft into a flying aircraft carrier. "Parasitic" fighters that can be arranged, i
Original plans called for the massive Lockheed C-5 Galaxy freighter, but as Boeing pointed out at the time, the 747 actually offered superior range and endurance when flying with a full load. According to Boeing's proposal, the 747 could be properly equipped to carry 883,000 pounds.
The Boeing 747 AAC (Airborne Aircraft Carrier) concept was simple in theory, but incredibly complex in practice. Boeing will typically design and build fighter jets small enough to fit inside the 747, which would allow the larger aircraft to carry fighters long distances, drop them where they are needed for combat, and retrieve them later.
Boeing's 60-page proposal discusses how such a program might be implemented, but there are lingering questions about the fuel range of a 747 with such a heavy payload and how the fighter jets would perform in a combat environment. Earlier concepts of flying aircraft carriers showed that the massive turbulence of the large aircraft (and their jet engines) made it extremely difficult for the fighters they would jettison, especially when trying to return to aircraft after a mission.
America's Crazy Flying Aircraft Carriers Could Have Actually Worked
Another concern was how capable these miniature "parasite" fighters would be against the superior Soviet fighters they were up against.
In the end, the proposal never made it off the page — but established a key point for further discussion on the topic. According to the report, Boeing concluded that the concept of a flying aircraft carrier was "technically feasible" using technology from the early 1970s. It is important to note that technically feasible is, however, not the same
The skunkworks at Lockheed Martin are responsible for some of the most incredible aircraft of all time, from the high-flying U-2 spy plane to the fastest military jet.
, SR-71. But even that incredible craft looks simple compared to Lockheed's proposal to build an even bigger, flying, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — the CL-1201.
In The 1970s, The Air Force Had A Plan For Aircraft Carriers (in The Sky)
The proposal called for an aircraft weighing 5,265 tonnes. To carry this much weight, the design included a wingspan of 1,120 feet, with a fuselage of 560 feet (or about two and a half times the length of the 747). It will be 153 feet
, making it as tall as a 14-story building. According to Lockheed, they were able to keep the giant bird in the sky using only four large turbofan engines powered by regular jet fuel below 16,000 feet, where it would transfer.
Thanks to its built-in reactor. A flying aircraft carrier can then stay in the air for a long time without refueling
The giant aircraft will have a crew of 845 and can deploy 22 multirole fighters from wing-mounted port pylons. It will also house a small indoor hangar for aircraft repairs and aircraft servicing. Not surprisingly, this design didn't make it past the proposal stage, but the concept itself stands as a historical anomaly that continues to attract new attention today.
Nasa's Original Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Departs Dryden
This massive bomber weighed 410,000 pounds when fully loaded with fuel and weapons (due to its large fuel tank and 86,000 weapons capacity). Development of the B-36 began in 1941, thanks to calls for an aircraft capable of flying from America, bombarding Berlin with conventional or nuclear weapons and returning without refueling. However, by the time the B-36 took to the air, World War II had been over for more than a year.
With a wingspan of 230 feet, the Peacemaker's wingspan dwarfs even the B-52's 185-foot wingspan. In its time, it was the largest aircraft to take to the skies. Despite its incredible capabilities, the B-36 never flew operational missions, but the platform's size and range led the Air Force to consider using it as a flying aircraft carrier, using Republic YRF-84F Ficon "parasite" fighters as bombers. payload
The idea was similar to a later Boeing proposal, carrying fighter jets inside them to extend their operational range and then deploying them on a drop branch, where they could provide bomber cover, reconnaissance assets or even conduct offensive operations of their own. before returning to the B-36 for recovery.
A view of the YRF-84F from inside the B-36 - the pilot can enter and exit the cockpit inside the bomber. (US Air Force photo)
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft With Orbiter
The US Air Force eventually abandoned the concept of aerial refueling, which dramatically increased the operational range of all types of aircraft, and made the flying aircraft carrier concept a cost effective solution.
Although we rarely see rigid inflatable airships in service with national armies today, things were very different in the early 20th century. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's airships (called "Zeppelins") became a useful military platform due to their fuel efficiency, range, and large payload capacity. These large airships were not only economical, but their sheer size provided an additional military advantage: their sheer presence could be extremely intimidating to an enemy.
However, as you may have already guessed, this large presence also created a major weakness for the hardened airship: it was likely to be shot down by even simple enemy aircraft. England was the first nation to attempt to compensate for this weakness by developing a device that could carry and deploy three Sopwith Camel biplanes under a ship's mast. They eventually built four of these Vickers Class 23 rigid airships, but they were all decommissioned in the 1920s. However, the US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics took note of the concept and considered building their own inflatable airships, including the aircraft carriers USS Akron (ZRS-4) and USS Macon (ZRS-5).
The airships were built with equipment that could not only propel the F9C-2 Curtiss Sparrowhawk biplanes, but bring them back in mid-flight. Airships and planes came under the naval banner, and the intention was that the attached biplanes would be used for both reconnaissance (finding ships) and defense, but not necessarily for offensive operations.
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