United States Navy - Aircraft Carrier 'Scheme D' (1941)

[Graham1973]

A while back I posted the first two design proposals for what emerged as the Midway Class Aircraft Carriers. Unfortunately the preliminary drawings for the third proposal ('Scheme C') don't appear to have survived, but those for the fourth proposal which dates from July 1941 do. This is a 28,000 ton aircraft carrier with an RN style armoured box hanger, although the ends of the flight deck are unarmoured.

There are no flight deck elevators, rather three side elevators. Gun armament is, unlike the 'Scheme A' & 'Scheme B' designs purely aimed at AA defence comprising 5inch DP guns and Bofors Guns. The notes attached to this diagram indicate that the airgroup for this design smaller than those in use at the time it was created which is probably why the design was not chosen for production.

https://www.shipscribe.com/styles/S-511/images/s-file/s511-41c.htm

 

[EwenS]

Thanks for posting this.

By July 1941 the USN had been in possession of the damage report for HMS Illustrious since mid-March and had access to the ship at the Norfolk NY since mid-May. Yet the proposed CV-D only has a 1.5” Armoured deck (Illustrious 3” & Midway 3.5”).

But there are already a number of features in the design that were carried over to the eventual 45,000 ton Midway.

Firstly, the three layers of armour. Flight deck, hangar deck and a deck lower in the ship.

Secondly the hangar layout. The area described as “Hangar space” is within the Armoured box divided into 3 sections with Armoured doors. But aft of that is a space described as “Reserve Plane Stowage” which is not Armoured. Earlier USN carriers carried their reserve aircraft triced into the space between the hangar roof beams. In the Midways as completed the hangar section aft of the after lift was not Armoured. I’ve been trying to understand why, and this now seems to offer an explanation. The difference between 1941 and 1945 being a change in policy to eliminate reserve aircraft as they proved to be a hazard to wartime operations.

Edit:- And looking at the 45,000 ton CV-E design from Sept 1941 the Reserve Plane Storage fore and aft of the “Hangar” also lies outwith the Armoured space.