WesWorld

Why not just have a seperate small autogiro carrier? It could be much smaller and unarmoured with less guns. Something like your fighter carrier. It seems to much to integrate with a cruiser.

I think trying to land on that pad will be very difficult and the air currents will be very turbulent with all those masts and 'stuff' ahead. An offset funnel might be best as well. Why not just ditch Y turret too and have a bigger pad?

Wes, Those ships (well the first two) have fighter direction stations with extensive radio masts so they can talk to the pilots and use a small amount of planes more effectively. They don't mount radar (yet) but radios which have been around for ages. The individual aircraft won't have radios yet, but the flgiht commanders will and this'll definitely help somewhat.

Hood, the three Condottieri-Class carriers with flight arrangements can operate autogyros but will be better suited to fleet air defense carrying fighters. A specific autogyro carrier for convoy work/asw might get built eventually but there isn't a need yet.

Whats the point of a radio if Italian's talk with their hands... : P

AIGF,

In world war II uboats had an Focke-Achgelis designed an autogiro for use as an aerial spotting device in the Second World War. The Fa 330 was a small autogiro which could be stored on board German U-boats. When it was required for service, the blades were re-attached and the autogiro was towed behind the U-boat. The pilot was able to communicate with the U-boat by means of a telephone line running along-side the towing wire

Perhaps the cruiser could tow the autogiro to low altitude and then release it for flight, and for landing the autogiro would lower a cable and be towd down to the platform.
It would help landings to be more precise.

A small Autogyro carrier is something I have been considering. For convoy duty a 2,000 ton ship carrying about 6 ASW Gyros should be pretty useful.

Wasn't that towed autogyro unpowered, though? I'd think that there would be problems with damaging the transmission or the engine with trying to tow a powered autogyro into the air or down out of the air.


Given the ASW technology of the day, I'm not at all sure that an ASW autogyro's all that useful. Consider: the best submarine detection system will be, through the end of the 1940s, active sonar, which is going to be too big and power-hungy to mount on anything other than a ship. Range is not long, a couple miles at most. ASW weapons at this point are depth charges or depth bombs, which an autogyro would not have the ability to adjust the depth setting of (no access to the fuzes). It's not going to be until homing torpedoes are available and small enough to be air-dropped (mid-40s historically) that an autogyro or helicopter will be a very useful ASW weapon. A spotting platform, yes, weapon, no.

It should be fine for dropping depth bombs like PBYs and Sunderlands. Approach speed isn't going to be greatly different for a 3000kg(ish) gyro.

Modern ships with helipads use the cable method for landing helicopters in heavier seas.

Quoted

Originally posted by Johan
In world war II uboats had an Focke-Achgelis designed an autogiro for use as an aerial spotting device in the Second World War. The Fa 330 was a small autogiro which could be stored on board German U-boats. When it was required for service, the blades were re-attached and the autogiro was towed behind the U-boat. The pilot was able to communicate with the U-boat by means of a telephone line running along-side the towing wire.

Only one merchantman was recorded as spoted using the Focke-Achgelis. One disadvantage of this device was that if the U-boat was spoted there was no time to real in the unfortunate spotter. The cord would be cut and the pilot left to be picked up later if possible.

The whole point is to keep the sub submerged were its blind and slow, keep it down and the air gets foul and the batteries go flat forcing the sub to surface. At the least a ship might pick it up on ASDIC and home in for a depth charge kill. A sub skipper won't see an autogiro in the periscope and think about surfacing and giving away his position.