Flying aircraft carrier: description, characteristics and history of creation

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

A flying aircraft carrier is an aircraft capable of carrying several smaller aircraft designed for combat operations in the air.

The idea of its creation arose shortly after the construction and operation of zeppelins, better known to the reader as airships.

The creation of an aircraft carrier was considered a promising business, as it increased the effectiveness of combat aviation. However, with the advent of tanker aircraft, this direction has lost its relevance, although it has not been completely discounted.

What caused the emergence of flying aircraft carriers

The appearance of new devices, mechanisms is always associated with certain demands of society. As you know, at the beginning of the 20th century, the First World War broke out, during which combat aviation was used for the first time on both sides. However, her effectiveness was very low.

The fact is that the aircraft that were in service with the armies at that time had a negligible flight range due to the insignificant amount of fuel on board. This seriously limited the use of combat aircraft, since they could only operate in the frontline zone. The rear of the enemy was out of reach for them.

Necessityincreasing the effectiveness of combat aviation forced the military to pay attention to zeppelins - airships with a metal shell. These air vehicles had a rather impressive size and the ability to fly over long distances. This gave rise to the idea of moving aircraft with their help over long distances deep into enemy territory to carry out bombing attacks on strategic targets. This is how flying aircraft carriers appeared. But it should be noted that each country went its own way to implement this idea. Far from always, this path led to successful decisions.

Aircraft carrier airship. First experience

The initial direction in the creation of a flying aircraft carrier was the use of airships in this capacity, which were widely used in military conflicts, until the end of World War II.

Aircraft designers considered the following option to be the most acceptable: the biplane was mounted on board a zeppelin and delivered to the combat area.

After that, the plane was taken out of the hatch of the airship with a special crane and unhooked. All this happened at full speed of the aircraft carrier. Then there was an independent flight of a biplane.

After completing the combat mission, the aircraft returned to the zeppelin, which continued to ply in the combat area, at full speed clung to it with a crane hook and pulled in. Then the aircraft carrier returned to the airfield.

At the end of 1918, the American airship C-1 lifted the Curtiss JN4 into the air,attached under the gondola. After lifting, the biplane unhooked and continued flying on its own.

In the future, the United States built two more airships, the largest in the history of aviation, Macon and Akron, which had a length of 239 m and were capable of carrying up to four fighters on board. However, the lack of experience in the construction of this kind of zeppelins had a negative impact on their future fate: both "aircraft" crashed due to weak design.

Changing the concept of creating aircraft carriers

The experience of using an airship as a flying aircraft carrier showed the failure of this direction. Interest in him especially faded after the catastrophe of the world's largest zeppelin, the Hindenburg. The hydrogen-filled airship burned down instantly, killing more than three dozen passengers and crew members.

Also, a significant drawback of the airship aircraft carrier was its vulnerability to enemy aircraft. The appearance of enemy aircraft in the area where an aircraft carrier "stuffed" with hydrogen meant inevitable death for him.

Therefore, already in the First World War, the British attempted to create a composite aircraft, that is, an aircraft carrying a fighter. As such an aircraft carrier, the British intended to use a flying boat, fixing a fighter on top of it.

The idea, of course, was good, but difficult to implement. Therefore, a flying aircraft carrier in the form of a composite aircraft was never created by British aircraft designers. However, bitter foreign experience did not stop Russian aircraft manufacturers.

Ideaaircraft designer V. S. Vakhmistrov

Vladimir Sergeevich Vakhmistrov is a graduate of the Air Force Academy. After graduating from the Academy, he worked at an aviation research and testing institute. It was within its walls that the designer came up with the idea of using the twin-engine bomber TB-1, created by the famous designer Tupolev, as an “aviation mother”.

Vladimir Sergeevich suggested fixing two fighters on the wings of the TB-1 with special locks.

In this case, the planes were used to protect the bomber from enemy aircraft.

It was also planned that after the completion of the bombardment of enemy targets, TB-1 and fighters each returned to the airfield on their own.

The embodiment of Vakhmistrov's idea

In the middle of 1931, the Soviet command approved the plan of V. S. Vakhmistrov, believing that an aircraft carrier was a serious weapon.

A group of young designers began intensive work on the creation of a winged aircraft carrier, or, as it was then called, a link aircraft. At the end of 1931, Vakhmistrov's flying aircraft carrier was ready for testing. The first flights were entrusted to the most experienced pilots of the time, namely Adam Zalevsky (bomber crew commander), Andrey Sharapov (BT-1 co-pilot), Valery Chkalov and Alexander Anisimov (pilots of fighters attached to the wings of a bomber).

Vakhmistrov's Circus

This was the name given to the test flights of the first Soviet aircraft carrier. The fact is that flights were often accompanied byemergency situations.

For example, during the first flight, the lack of coordination between the actions of the bomber crew and the pilot of the fighter Chkalov led to the fact that Zalevsky opened the front locks of the fighter with the rear landing gear closed. Only Chkalov's experience saved everyone from disaster.

A similar situation happened to V. Kokkinaki's fighter: the tail landing gear lock did not open. Here, the bomber commander Stefanovsky saved the situation by deciding to land with fighters on the wings. Everything ended well.

Inspiring success

The first test flights showed that the Soviet flying aircraft carriers are worthy of further development.

To replace the TB-1 bomber, a more powerful TB-3 was created, capable of becoming an aircraft carrier for Polikarpov's new I-5 fighters. At the same time, it became possible to increase the number of portable fighters to three - two on the wings and one on the fuselage.

Vakhmistrov attempted to secure fighters under the wings of TB-3, but it ended in the death of the fighter pilot. The cause of the disaster was once again the lock of the aircraft on the “aircraft”, which did not open in the air, but spontaneously worked during landing.

In 1935, a Soviet flying aircraft carrier was already capable of transporting five fighters, with one of them (I-Z) connected to the "aviation" in the air.

In 1938, the flying aircraft carrier was adopted by the Red Army.

The most famous aircraft carriers

There are five known flying aircraft carriers that left their mark on the history of aviation - the Soviet TB-1 Tupolev, Tu-95N, American aircraft Convair B-36, Boeing B-29 Superfortress and the Akron airship.

The Soviet TB-1 is the world's first mass-produced all-metal monoplane bomber used as a carrier of light aircraft. The aircraft carrier received its baptism of fire on July 26, 1941, when, with its help, fighter-bombers finally "got" the German oil storage facility in Konstanz.

Project "Flying Aircraft Carrier" Vahmistrov's homeland has not forgotten. In 1955, work began in the USSR on the creation of a strike strategic system, including the RS supersonic bomber and the Tu-95N carrier aircraft.

It was assumed that the RS will be partially placed in the cargo compartment of an aircraft carrier. The system was supposed to ensure the defeat of targets without entering the enemy's air defense coverage area and returning to the airfield.

The American Convair B-36 took part in the creation of a heavy bomber cover system, which provided for the transportation of up to four McDonnell XF-85 Goblin type light fighters.

However, due to the difficulty of docking the fighter with the B-36, the project was closed in 1949. In addition, the command of the US Air Force considered the false targets-imitators, released by a bomber in case of an attack by enemy aircraft, more effective than a combat cover fighter.

Boeing B-29, 1940s development,provided for the carrying of two fighters. However, the powerful whirlwinds at the ends of the B-29's wings led to disaster, the project was canceled, and the concept was recognized as dangerous.

The American airship USS Akron of the 30s was one of the largest zeppelins in the world. It was able to transport up to five light aircraft, whose task was reconnaissance.

Flying aircraft carriers of the future

The American and Soviet flying aircraft carriers reviewed above, fortunately, have not yet set precedents for their combat use, with the exception of the operation to destroy the oil storage in Constanta during World War II.

However, the idea of creating a flying aircraft carrier still excites the minds of designers.

For example, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the Gremlins program to develop drones capable of taking off from and returning to an aircraft carrier.