This Aircraft Carrier Could Go Underwater... IMPOSSIBLE Submarine Aircraft Carrier - An 1 + An 2

this

video is sponsored by surfsharkvpn carries 28 fighter planes

this

submarine

fills the gap between an

aircraft

carrier

and a floating war machine can deploy its air raids without being detected retain more than 2,000 men for a land invasion and disappear under the waves in any time this is the incredible story of the never built concept that was almost made in the development of the US

submarine

carrier

program hold your breath because this will be the most detailed video found in the explanation but submarines have always played a fundamental role in the navy's strategy. But for all the advantages of sailing below the surface of the water, its role has actually been quite limited.

Most navies only use them for surveillance, torpedo warfare and missile launchers compared to

aircraft

carriers which, thanks to their size, are obvious targets but can be used for so much. Much more than submarines, the question remains whether a submarine

could

house aircraft. It would have all the advantages of an aircraft carrier with the defense of sailing under the waves. Placing aircraft on submarines was not a new concept. Initially, the US Navy had considered the idea as already in the 1920s, with a giant

underwater

battleship that

could

go toe-to-toe with its surface counterparts, it could also carry three biplanes to be used in exploration and perhaps in ground attacks, but the defect was that these biplanes would take hours to arrive. be assembled for flight and then the same when it returned to be put back in the hangar leaving the submarine battleship vulnerable to attack and ruling out any advantage of the concept.

Many versions of this battleship were also considered and it is something that perhaps we should show. in a future video, so like it if you think so, fast forward 20 years during world war 2 and the japanese built the i-400, a submarine that could deploy three m6a atchi aircraft for attacks with a range of 1000 kilometers. YouTube has covered this concept in depth and I suggest you head on over to watch their brilliant documentary, preferably while enjoying a sandwich with lots of mustard. Go back to our story during the war, other nations discovered that by seizing an island, building a landing strip and using regular airplanes. to make planes cheaper, faster and use tried and true technology already developed rather than converting submarines into aircraft carriers, it was only when the technology changed with rockets in the 1950s that the US Navy once again dusted off old plans to a super secret submarine carrier project after all if a submarine could carry and launch aircraft sized cruise missiles then logically it could carry crew missile sized aircraft but what aircraft was the question.

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I don't exactly want all these types of governments to know where I am or private companies to get hold of my data, especially when some of my topics venture into the more covert ops niche, now I can talk about all these crazy ideas with all my heart . The best thing is that a Surf Shark VPN account is unlimited. I can use it on my phone, laptop, home computer and mig 25. Now shut up, Surf Shock has been kind enough to give the founder and explain to the viewers 83 off and three extra months free. at surfshark.deals found more a 30 day money back guarantee for my link below anyway getting back to the show, the problem the engineers faced was not the submarines themselves, but finding a plane that could be launched from those two companies.

Boeing and Douglas were recruited to come up with an airplane-sized missile or airplane modification that could, in theory, be launched from the submarines of the time, such as the rear-class gray submarine that began service in 1957. As you can see See in this photo of one such submarine preparing to launch a Regulus 2-class cruise missile, there was clearly enough room for an aircraft, although it would be unlike anything else built. Douglas was the first with the model 640, it would be a small single-seat attack aircraft and would be folded. completely to sit inside the Regulus cruise missile bay, flexible enough to be carried by a submarine or, if necessary, on a surface ship, it was a fairly conventional design and would not look out of place from other aircraft in the mid 50's although it would have some unique features for take off and landing it would require a catapult system like on an aircraft carrier to take it into the sky this was fine for an aircraft carrier as many already had one on board but building a catapult system catapult on a submarine was something much more complex That detracted from the proposal, the plane also featured a rounded bottom and two jet inlets on the shoulders in a relatively high position, which allowed it to land in the ocean with a train of hydroski landing after the mission was completed to be recovered by the ship for the aircraft's weapons.

It carried a large enough atomic payload that allowed it to drop atomic weapons on an enemy coastal city, although as the bomb was completely exposed, the plane couldn't exactly land with the weapon undeployed and, as Scott Larthur said in the aerospace project review, It would be suicide. Douglas was not successful with the concept, although he did take a lot of design notes and then used them in the development of the a4 skyhawk, so don't feel too bad for them as for Boeing, well they were really in love with a concept called carpet magical. Boeing's design was Actually, the most interesting thing would be to take the existing Grumman F11f and connect it to what's called a flying carpet.

This was a rocket sled that could launch the aircraft vertically before undocking and then returning to the submarine for use again. It would float vertically. fall like the rockets we see today in spacex and then be recovered without touching the water although presumably it could float if something went wrong the plane itself the modified f-11f could fold completely to fit inside the regulus canisters and require extensive redesign to land back on the submarine according to the investigation, the idea was that the plane would land vertically using the jet's thrust and then a vertical support would somehow grab it in the air, simple in theory but many of my viewers would probably laugh.

This was ambitious even today in 2021. Another idea was proposed and it came from Convair. At the same time as this research conference he was working on the only jet fighter seaplane ever made for the US Navy, called the f2yc dart, clearly an airplane. which could take off, fly and land at sea was infinitely simpler and more flexible than the crazy douglas catapult or the boeing rocket plane, the sea dart could fly at mach 1.25 over a range of 826 kilometers or 446 nautical miles, however , these convair jet seaplanes, which, by the way, clearly deserve their own video, were too big to fit on the gray back and would need their own submarine, something the US Navy had up its sleeve.

This submarine design was originally created by the US Navy Bureau of Ships and would measure 460 feet. long and would be powered by a large nuclear reactor, like any other 1950s idea, it could carry three mission-modified sea dart fighters and would have folding wings to fit on board, they would be stowed in a round hangar inside the hull of the the submarine near the top and the idea was that the submarine would surface, an elevator would take the plane to the upper deck and if conditions permitted the plane would take off in the ocean if the submarine encountered rough seas then There was an alternative launch method to Using a 170 foot or 51 meter runway on the upper deck, once the mission was completed the aircraft would land back at sea and presumably be loaded back on board.

It is unknown what happened to this design, but clearly the concept was well thought out, although we can see two problems: one, the weakness of the elevator hole in the submarine would prevent it from going very deep and the submarine would have a high center of gravity so that the Elevator and onboard track worked for the plane, but the real cause of failure came from the C-Dart being canceled for poor performance and in favor of a supersonic transport plane. For all intents and purposes, the idea of ​​an aircraft carrier submarine was dead in the intended pun, while the plane investigation had resulted in a bit of a stumble.

Block Boeing had not given up on the idea and in the late 1950s proceeded to come up with two submarine ideas to complement a new jet design and, believe me, these were even crazier, not satisfied with simply substantially modifying the F-11f that Boeing came up with it. a new jet design and combined it with new submarines, starting with the plane, it would have impressive performance since it would not need to take off from a runway, therefore there would not be a high thrust-to-weight ratio, the wings would also be smaller and this is kind of a scary idea, there would be no need for landing gear, it would essentially be a manned missile, it would also have a speed of Mach 3 and could carry most modern missiles at the time internally.

They also developed two versions of a submarine carrier called an1 and an2. The an1 could carry eight aircraft in two large hangars at the front of the submarine. Each aircraft would have its own launch bay where the aircraft would be prepared and loaded simultaneously. The submarine would carry around five. minutes to launch four of the planes from the surface or eight planes in just seven and a half minutes a big difference from the original designs that would take hours to do these planes would come out of the submarine hangars and be ready. to launch vertically, they would rotate on the deck and could be launched at the same time, a big difference from the organized chaos of an aircraft carrier deck, the planes would take off vertically using the same flying carpet system at launch, the submarine would recover first. the flying carpets and then the planes once they returned using a series of cranes this concept would recover the planes all at the same time and then disappear beneath the waves the submarine itself would have four torpedo tubes at the front and rear, front and back respectively allowing it to continue performing some of the traditional

underwater

turns, although thanks to the space occupied by the hangars we cannot imagine that there would be much space to animate, there would be enough ammunition, fuel and spare parts on board for these aircraft that would be capable of making 160 sorties in total or around 20 missions per plane.

These missions would include bomber interception, anti-ship tasks, and even nuclear strikes. They are unlikely to be used for conventional fighter interception or air-to-air combat due to Due to the extreme speed of the aircraft to land, these aircraft would not exactly hover using the jet exhaust, but would rather sink and stop right next to the vertical grid, they would somehow capture the plane that would be moving quite slowly while sounding complex. The landing method was much easier for a pilot to perform than landing horizontally on the deck of a pitching aircraft carrier or, worse still, landing directly on the tail like some of the tailplanes that were proposed at the same time, under conditions of storm, the submarine would only really be able to launch from the central platforms, as this would reduce the absolute pitch motion and make it much easier for the pilots.

An alternative design of the an1 also appeared where the jets did not rotate before launch, allowing for lighter launch equipment and faster individual launch. launch process, however, these systems did not actually allow the planes to fly at the same time without colliding with each other and there was no way to recover the planes simultaneously. We can imagine the chaos if all the planes tried the belly up maneuver while looking at us at the same time, let's talk about the second option that Boeing engineers came up with, the an2, keep in mind this is a bit silly, the version submarine carrier an2 had some pretty significant changes and was called the brother of the first.The design was quite inaccurate, the two large hangars disappeared and instead the aircraft were stored in their own vertical launch silos along the spine of the submarine.

This verticality would mean that the submarine would have to be taller, causing changes in the center of gravity, the advantage of this concept was that, to simplify the launch process, the submarine could surface the fighter plane vertically and launch the fighter aircraft such as future nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, once launched the magic carpet would fall and be recovered by the submarine in the same way as with the an1, the pilot would of course have to board the plane vertically like the space shuttle and would have to remain suspended there as the submarine's surface recovery proved to be a more difficult beast to tackle.

The problem was that the plane would not only have a smaller target to hit. but it would also have to be attached to the magic carpet during landing and this duplication of components led to doubling the complexity to fix it, the designers devised a recovery apparatus that would be gyro-stabilized and capable of capturing aircraft even in rough seas, but this

impossible

solution it would also weigh down the submarine and move its center of gravity even higher. Boeing also considered that these designs would carry even better aircraft in the future, such as Mach 4 aircraft or even Mach 5 aircraft, the two hangars in the front.

The section could also have been merged to carry two or three even larger aircraft, such as bombers. Boeing eventually thought that this submarine could carry nuclear rockets, which, as you may realize, is exactly what happened in the future. AN1 submarine designs were considered to cost around 140 to 160 million in 1958 or 1, 2 to $1.46 billion today and I think we all know that if it had gone ahead it would have cost substantially a lot more, but understand that when it's not even finished yet. Boeing presented the an1 and an2 designs. General Electric thought they would create their own version of the concept because it's about to get even bigger.

General Electric or as it was known back then, General Dynamics Electric ships saw a major flaw in all of them. These earlier submarine carrier designs that were created for specialized aircraft realized why develop specialized aircraft when a submarine could be so large that it could effectively allow anything to fly off of it, that's right, I wanted to turn a modern aircraft carrier into a submarine. would have to be able to get as close as possible to the enemy coast without being detected and then deploy a series of fighter squadrons thanks to the recent development of vertical take-off and landing technology or vetol aircraft such as the Harrier jump jet could be deployed rising from the belly rather than in its tail, despite this, this submarine would still need a runway large enough for rolling horizontal takeoffs to help conserve aircraft fuel.

The team studied many different concepts including vertical design b silos like the boeing an2 inclined design c silos that launched the aircraft at an angle, but like design b, limited the number of aircraft on board. design of twin elevated islands that would allow two vertical launch platforms for airplanes or helicopters. design e which had a full length flight deck and an island in the middle, but as design d was limited only to aircraft that could fly vertically design f had a walk-up aircraft ramp so that aircraft could reach a huge flight deck take a deep breath because we're halfway there design g that liked ramps so much it had one fore and aft design h that had two ramps in the middle of the eye deck design that had an elevator in the middle of the ship with two separate hangars designed j that had eight different hangars and a giant elevator that was accessed design k that went crazy with the hangars with 16 of them and three well decks that could be moved although I'm not entirely sure where there was the flight deck here and I designed a mini submarine with 10 planes created at the request of the navy for a more economical solution whose cost is estimated only around 100 million in 1963 or 848 million today and in the end they came up with this label design : This submarine would have a large cylinder with a flat technology on top that had a diameter of 55 feet or 16 meters, the submarine would be 840 feet long at 256 meters and would have a speed of 20.8 knots, the flight deck itself at the top would be 60 feet wide, which is 18 meters, and it would be 500 feet long or 152 meters, which is enough for some planes to carry out an emergency. landing, but for comparison, this is about half the length of the Nismid class aircraft carrier, it would have two sails and that's what these things are here that would house several turbines that would provide electrical power, although the main source of electricity would presumably come from of a large nuclear engine the internal space would be occupied by a vast hangar the hangar layout could be configured where needed and could carry up to 28 fighter aircraft in a high density configuration with two more stored in the elevators for maximum capacity missions the aircraft It would move around the deck with a landing gear and would be taken by the front or rear elevators.

These elevators would take the aircraft to the outer deck via a double hatch airlock seal, as this word fixed the problem found with the original transport submarine that I talked about previously and improved the structural integrity. Speaking of structural integrity, the flight deck itself was made of two-inch thick steel to serve the dual purpose of being strong enough for aircraft landings and also impenetrable to enemy fire to ensure there was enough clearance between the deck. To achieve this, engineers created huge ballast tanks that would fill with water when they sank and then be filled with engine exhaust, presumably from jet engines, to raise the water level.

Flight deck above the waves compressed air was considered to be similar to that used on other submarines, but did not actually provide enough lift for the flight deck to be high enough below hangar level; There would also be crew facilities and a repair deck for aircraft maintenance. have air defenses with rockets, although research seems to indicate that without support ships it would depend mainly on its numerous aircraft for defense; On the other hand, in total, the submarine would take up to 27 minutes to launch its full complement of 28 aircraft and would have 430 crew and be able to reach a depth of 2000 feet, about 600 meters below the sea surface and I bet you are wondering why What to stop at the planes, this submarine could transport 2000 men in its equipment, tanks, helicopters and more to land. invasion force, it could even carry artillery that could be brought to the flight deck and then used safely.

Full bombing of this flexible submarine would cost the American taxpayer $271 million in 1963 or $2.34 billion in today's money, the designers proposed for the fourth submarine. built, the cost would be lower, but such a comment probably surprised the generals when they reviewed their work if it had been built, although this aircraft carrier concept seems much more realistic than the Boeing AN1 design, we can totally imagine that the launch F-35C vertical The planes feel at home aboard this genius idea and who knows, maybe it really is there under the waves. The concept of an underwater aircraft carrier, as in real submarines designed for aircraft, disappeared in the late 60s.

By then, the defects of aircraft carriers had already disappeared. been surpassed and almost any land aircraft could be converted to operate on these new giant nuclear powered aircraft carriers, in addition to the change in objective for these ships from being a hidden target to a strong show of force, the United States did not want to hide a Due to the presence of the aircraft carrier, they wanted the enemy to see it parked off the coast, but our story doesn't really end there because, you see, in 2005, Darpa asked Lockheed Martin to create a reusable drone that could be launched from Ohio. class submarines from the Trident missile launch tube, this multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle called a cormorant would be constructed of titanium for deep-sea operations and would have a mission profile of exploring anti-ship rolls or even land attacks, the aircraft would neatly fold in it and launched underwater to a depth of 150 feet or 45 meters, it would slowly float to the surface before a rocket booster was ignited and sent to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, then it would activate its turbojet to fly During recovery, the plane would return to a prearranged location to rendezvous with the submarine, shut down its engine and seal its turbojet to deploy a parachute, then float gently to touch the water and sit there until the submarine arrived upon arrival at the location where the submarine was located. without surfacing would send a small robot that would find the plane using sonar and tie a small rope to it, the other end of the rope would coil it back into the launch tube dragging the entire plane in once the plane and The robot would be recovered, the tube would then be purged and engineers could prepare the plane for its next mission.

This entire study cost around 4.2 million and Lockheed hoped to win a second round of funding to build the first prototype; However, in 2007, Darpa refused to pursue the project and the idea of ​​a plane-carrying submarine has since faded beneath the waves. An underwater aircraft carrier has always been that missing link between navy aircraft and underwater operations. There is that gap between something that can be launched undetected but still has the range and flexibility of an aircraft, especially on land away from the sea, we could see that this concept could be used for special operations missions where a team is sent from a submarine via a veto plane to a hot zone in return before the alarm can be raised. that can now be done with other tools, such as an aircraft carrier or a long-range aircraft with air refueling, in the same way, any attack can be carried out with a cruise missile and nuclear capability has long evolved. time, moving away from aircraft-mounted atomic bombs, intercontinental ballistic missiles. that role and then, in a nutshell, we have the technology to create a submarine aircraft carrier and we have had it since the end of World War II, but it is not really necessary, of course, there is also the possibility that the US government The US or others actually went ahead with this plan and now sitting off the coast in those murky depths is pretty awesome.

I'll let you decide in the comments. Today's video would not have been possible without all the incredible hard work from Scott Lauther and on his aerospace blog projectsreview.com, the incredible amount of research and effort he put into uncovering all of this information, diagrams and plans is truly impressive and I stand on the shoulders of giants who are bringing all of this to you today in video format, so I highly recommend that you click the link below to visit their website and see the incredible variety of aerospace projects that were never built and we are So close to changing the world of aviation forever, believe me, it's a rabbit hole and you're going to waste an entire afternoon discovering the undiscovered world.

There was also a big research section that I skipped that involved huge underwater battleships. If you want to see this as a video, I suggest you let me know in the description or leave. like it and I'll start this right away and if you enjoyed this video today I suggest you subscribe to see more videos like this. Oh, and hey, don't forget about today's great deal from our sponsor. surfsharkvpn details in the description lastly I want to thank my patreons and those you see here on the screen who have supported me for months and have been an incredible influence in allowing me to follow the topics I choose if you want to help me decide on the next one. topics, then I'm going to do some polls on Patreon to find out what to do next, so click the link in the description and you too can be the mind behind the decision found and explained, plus we have other advantages and you.

You can see other early videos like the one you're watching now was released probably about a couple of weeks before it appeared here, so once again, this was a huge project and thank you so much for watching it from here to the end.because at the end of the day the viewer watching right now is the real hero of the story, so thanks again, take care.