Chapter 1148: The establishment of an air fleet

Chapter 1148 The establishment of the aviation fleet 1

According to the current situation, it is still far from the time to distribute the benefits. Neither the capitalists nor the German Emperor would choose to do it at this time. They have only two possibilities for doing it. In one case, the empire can no longer survive, and there are internal concerns. External troubles have to be changed. Another situation is that the situation is better, and the Eastern Front issue has almost been resolved, when the empire began to discuss how to distribute benefits. The current situation is far from these.

"Watch the changes and follow the trend!" The prince wrote these words on the paper. Thinking of this, the prince pushed aside the messy information in the country. Now the prince has more important things, and that is to build the world's first aircraft carrier fleet! The first thing that needs to be done for such a challenging and epoch-making work is to find out the remaining three ships suitable for aircraft carrier conversion...

In fact, when the prince asked the Kaiser to change the two ships, there were already alternatives. One of the ships was also subordinate to the Bavarian Shipping Company. This was a passenger and cargo ship, to be precise. A container ship that incorporates some of the characteristics of later generations of container ships. You can also carry some personnel. However, the habitability and comfort are relatively poor, and the space is relatively small.

The speed of this fast oceangoing ship named Constellation is about 23 knots. If some unnecessary equipment is removed and thorough maintenance is carried out, running out of 24 knots is not a big problem. This is also a reserve aircraft carrier. Although there is no side-string armor belt installed, the underwater defense system is not bad. It consists of an empty tank, a liquid tank, and an empty tank with a thickness of more than 4 meters, and the last high elastic steel plate with a thickness of about 45 mm. If you don't consider resisting underwater bombs, then this ship's defense against torpedoes is no less than that of regular German warships, after all, the TDS is thick enough.

What is the biggest benefit of this ship search? In terms of size, this ship has a displacement of only 18,000 tons and a length of 195 meters. The ship with a maximum width of 27 meters is a circle smaller than the Wittelsbach. Even if it is changed to an aircraft carrier, its deck length will reach 205 meters, and the maximum deck width of 30 meters will be the limit. It is certain that the flying ability is worse than the former.

But because it was originally a container ship, there was a huge space in the middle of the hull that could be used as a hangar, and the height was large enough! The floor height is about 6 meters, and it runs through 2 decks up and down more! What is the concept? The height of the hangar of the Japanese two-station aircraft carrier is only 4.5 meters, and the height of the large American hangar is only 5.3 meters. And this product created a 6-meter hangar height...

And if there is a certain gap between the 6 meters above and the deck, the height is even greater. In some places in the hangar, the height of 7.5 meters is not a big problem! And such a huge space is 135 meters * 20 meters! If multiplied by the height of the floor and the hangar can be expanded at the beginning and end, this volume is really not much smaller than the Wittelsbach! (That's for sure, the aircraft carrier antiaircraft artillery deck of World War II is at the top of the hangar and the area where the deck is seen.)

It stands to reason that this height can actually be used as a two-story hangar. (The lower hangar is a closed hangar, and the upper hangar is an open hangar) But in fact, the upper prince does not intend to do this. Based on the principle of spending as little money as possible in the shortest possible time, this ship The modified aircraft carrier named Constellation still uses a single-layer hangar, but in order to ensure the capacity of the aircraft, the prince decided to equip this aircraft carrier with a ticket!

Why does the US World War II aircraft carrier have a large number of aircraft on board? In addition to the good folding wings of the airplane, enough airplanes, and the use of decks to place airplanes, another important reason is that many airplanes are suspended from the ceiling of the hangar in the form of parts. The F6F Hellcat with an empty weight of more than 4 tons was hung up after removing the two wings, like a dried sausage. When used, it was taken down and the wings were pressed decisively! Although it is not possible to use a double-layer hangar, in order to carry the aircraft, the prince still decided to put two layers of aircraft in the first-level hangar. In this way, the amount of aircraft on the Constellation aircraft carrier is not much less than that of Wittelsbach. (Of course, tickets can not be listed everywhere. It depends on the situation.)

For such a more promising modified aircraft carrier embryo, the prince will naturally not forget. Therefore, this merchant ship named Constellation was put on the first page of the list of modified ships.

But after all, there are still too few civil ships designed as embryonic aircraft carriers. Therefore, the third improved aircraft carrier can only be selected from the cruise ships currently in service. In fact, there is a problem. The structure of the cruise ship is relatively complicated, and it will be very troublesome to dismantle it. This causes a relatively long construction period, but the advantage is that at least the speed is up to the standard, and because it is used to transport people, the division of underwater sealed cabins is not bad.

As for using ordinary transport ships to change it is not impossible, but generally speaking, transport ships are not large enough. In this era, more than 5,000 tons are actually considered large ships. Moreover, the structural strength and underwater containment of the transport ship were too fragile to the prince. A battleship is not an airplane, and it might be a bad thing when you make a thunderous aircraft carrier. And the biggest problem is that the speed is generally not enough. Not to mention the high speed of 24 knots or more with the main force of the high seas fleet. In fact, it is rare for a transport ship to run at a speed of 20 knots!

Therefore, in a tangled entanglement, the prince can only focus on the large cruise ships that have been built to half-stretch and half-unfinished, but let alone, after some searching, the prince is really on the slipway of the Royal William Shipyard. Find a suitable target!

This is a cruise ship that is expected to be completed in 1913. Because of the outbreak of war, this large cruise ship named Hercules was forced to suspend work. Originally, its old owner, Hamburg Shipping Company, could only transfer it to the German Navy~www.wuxiaspot.com~ After completion, this ship is expected to have a displacement of 22,000 tons, a length of 180 meters, a width of 26 meters, and a draft of 9 meters. The merchant ship was originally intended to be converted into an auxiliary cruiser, but then it was abandoned because there were more ready-made ships. Originally, the ship was planned to be dismantled in January next year, but now, the prince is interested in it!

This is a fast cruise ship with an estimated maximum horsepower of up to 50,000 horsepower, 4-axle drive, and a maximum speed of 25 knots or more. And this ship has completed the hull, installed part of the power system, and has reached the end of pipeline laying. Basically, it’s just a matter of building the superstructure. If the prince wants to save trouble, he doesn’t even need the islands in the 2nd war aircraft carrier, and he’s done with a flat deck. what? Will this hangar be time-consuming? Surely not, the open hangar is easy. Get some shelves to support the upper flight deck, and then put some partitions and rolling doors on the side. Put it down at ordinary times, and open the ventilation directly when you need to warm up.

As for the housing of soldiers? Anyway, it is currently dangling in the North Sea, and it takes no more than 3 days to go out for visual inspection. It will be just one click. Therefore, this unfinished cruise ship named Hercules became the third aircraft carrier of the German Empire High Seas Fleet!

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(End of this chapter)