The Rise of the Empire

First of all, you want to put down as many as 80 fighter jets, which requires a rather large hangar! How big is this hangar? Even taking into account the folding wings of the aircraft, French engineers said that the size of the hangar must be at least 190 meters long and 25 meters wide! And this width is still the net size and does not include the elevators in the front and rear of the aircraft carrier hangar! If according to the previous plan, two elevators with a length of about 13 meters are added at the beginning and end, then the total length of the hangar will be 213 meters, and if you want to build it on a warship with a maximum length of less than 230 meters, With such a long hangar, I can only say, are you kidding?

The size of the battleship alone is enough to limit this hangar, not to mention that a single-layer hangar covering such a large area requires multiple horizontal armors and the structural weight to support this armor. Therefore, in the first place, The French can only give up the single-story hangar setting.

Okay, now the question is, if a double-layer hangar is set up on a 230-meter-long aircraft carrier, how long should the hangar be? After referring to the relationship between the double-layer hangar length and the hull of some German aircraft carriers, the French concluded that if the elevator space is not calculated, then it is more appropriate for the hangar length to be about 60% of the length of the aircraft carrier. In other words, the net length of the hangar should be about 140 meters.

So, in the end, the French set the net length of the hangar for this aircraft carrier to be 135 meters, and the width was 19 meters. Considering that the Japanese required that the battleship have as large a bomb load and aviation fuel reserves as possible, the French finally designed a one-and-a-half-story hangar for the aircraft carrier, which means that the length of the lower hangar is smaller, only 90 meters up and down. The remaining space is used to accommodate other cabins. However, after this adjustment, the aircraft carrier's aviation fuel loading capacity reached about 700 tons.

After designing the hangar, the next issue is the layout of the elevator. The French also encountered problems between the United States and Germany due to the elevator layout and double-layer hangar, and France solved it this way. They installed a total of 3 elevators on this aircraft carrier, two of which were side chord elevators to connect the upper floors. The hangar and deck, and the other elevator is an in-chord elevator, used to connect the double-layer hangar and the upper deck. According to the French design, the lower hangar is mostly used for aircraft maintenance and storage of spare aircraft and parts. Under normal circumstances, aircraft preparing for combat are on the deck and in the upper hangar.

After completing the design of the hangar and elevators, there is the flight deck. According to the current attack intensity of carrier-based aircraft, the French believe that 60MM horizontal armor is enough to withstand bomb attacks from all single-engine attack aircraft, and 60MM is not completely It's an armor plate, but 40MM of homogeneous steel armor and 20MM of structural steel back plate, adding up to a total of 60MM. The area covered by this armor plate is an area 135 meters long and 19 meters wide. Although the aircraft carrier designed by the British for Japan also considered an armored deck, the area was only 110 meters long and 14 meters wide. Obviously a lot smaller.

In order to support such an armor plate, the French also put a lot of thought into the hull design. First of all, it is impossible to make the two-story hangar completely open. After all, the floor of the lower hangar is almost close to sea level. Therefore, the French lower hangar is a closed structure.

In other words, this hangar is integrated with the hull structure. The upper hangar has also been transformed into a closed hangar at the front and an open hangar at the rear. The structural strength of the closed hangar can naturally support the armored deck above. The open hangar at the rear can also open the side walls and let air in to facilitate warming up.

From a purely design perspective, the French have done a very good job. The one-and-a-half-story hangar has better solved the problem of aircraft capacity. At the same time, the area of ​​the armored flight deck was also reduced. It gets decent defense at a lower weight cost. The semi-open hangar used in the upper hangar also solves the problem of conflict between the support structure and the warm-up machine.

But do you want to say that the French design has any flaws? This naturally exists. First of all, due to the limitations of the ship hull, the height of the two hangars is not very high. The upper hangar is about 4.5 meters high, and the lower hangar is 4.2 meters. There is no problem in accommodating current aircraft, but in the future The plane depends on the situation.

Another flaw is that the aircraft carrier designed by the French for Japan only has one layer of horizontal armor! The horizontal defense of the upper part of the battleship hangar is only 60MM, and there is not an inch of armor steel from the hangar deck to the lower part! An armored belt with only one layer of structural steel and side strings formed a fragile upper armor box.

But no matter what, the French's aircraft carrier design can be considered to have made leaps and bounds after all. They at least designed the first armored aircraft carriers! The Japanese experience during the war also greatly improved the soft power of this warship. For example, the Japanese had an empty tank-liquid tank-empty tank underwater defense system that had been tested in actual combat during the war. For example, the Japanese improved the ammunition delivery system and the protection of aviation fuel tanks. It can be said that this class of aircraft carrier is considered a very advanced new generation of aircraft carrier.

So far, Plan 7 is going very smoothly. The battleship has been launched a few months ago and is now being outfitted quickly. Thanks to the French installing a new small water tube boiler and a new small water tube boiler from Germany. With the imported Bremen steam turbine, this battleship can reach a speed of more than 26 knots or even 27 knots!

If we continue at the current pace, it is estimated that this aircraft carrier will be able to complete service in one year at most. Of course, considering that the French have not studied the issue of carrier-based aircraft and that it is impossible for the Germans to sell carrier-based aircraft, this aircraft carrier will still use British carrier-based aircraft. This secret will be exposed sooner or later, so Shimamura Hayao told Betty at least half the truth.

Although the French and Japanese have cooperated in the design of aircraft carriers, the real cooperation is still with the army. Now, the long sword from far away France will soon appear in the land battle on the island of New Guinea!

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