Chapter 605： Borcescu experimental aircraft carrier

The dispute between Romania and the Soviet Union abroad has not affected the domestic construction in the slightest, and as the Romanian navy, it still builds its own warships in an orderly manner.

Today, the weird-looking flat-top ship is sailing on the Black Sea, and there are several destroyers around it to **** it.

Anyone who knows anything about warships will know that this flat-top ship is an aircraft carrier that has only recently appeared.

Speaking of the invention of an aircraft carrier without flying a plane, this kind of machine that can fly freely in the sky has become an indispensable part of the military with its rapid mobility since its birth. As the navy, it is natural not to turn a blind eye to it, so naval personnel have always conducted research on it.

On November 14, 1910, U.S. pilot Eugene Ely piloted the "Curtis" biplane to take off from a wooden platform with a length of 253 meters and a width of 73 meters installed on the front of the cruiser "Birmingham". On January 18, 1911, Yili successfully used the tail hook of the aircraft to hook the brake cable on the platform installed at the rear of the armored cruiser "Pennsylvania" in a parked state. These two brave practices confirmed the possibility of taking off and landing aircraft on the ship, marking the birth of the prototype of the aircraft carrier.

On May 2, 1912, Captain Gregory of the British Navy successfully took off and landed the plane on the battleship. These successful practices led to the birth of British naval aviation, and a new type of service began to appear in the naval sequence.

These just represent that the aircraft can board the warship and become its new equipment for reconnaissance and correction of the artillery school. In World War I, the combat capabilities of submarines became increasingly apparent. In order to make use of the aircraft's unique reconnaissance and anti-submarine capabilities, the British Navy first began the development and modification of aircraft carriers. They first converted a coal carrier into an aircraft carrier and named it "Royal Ark".

Although on the surface, the "Royal Ark" can be called the world's earliest aircraft carrier, but strictly speaking, it is actually a "seaplane carrier." Since land planes took off and landed on the ship at that time, the danger was greater. Therefore, the "Royal Ark" carried a seaplane that could take off and land on the water. The crane on the mothership lifted the aircraft to the surface and then Take off, the plane returns to the deck after landing on the water.

It is precisely because the seaplane does not directly take off and land on the ship, so the deck on the original aircraft carrier is very small. The take-off and landing methods of carrier-based seaplanes are not only troublesome and time-consuming, but also inevitably damage the aircraft. So while using the above methods, people began to explore allowing aircraft to take off and land directly from warships. At that time, the aircraft were basically all biplanes, with light weight and short take-off and landing distances. This made it possible for the aircraft to take off and land directly on the deck of a warship.

In 1918, at the end of the First World War, the British Navy removed the main turrets on the front and rear decks of a large cruiser "Fury", and paved a wooden flight runway, bounded by the superstructure in the middle of the deck. The first runway is for airplanes to take off, and the aft runway is for airplanes to land. Therefore, the "Frath" became the first aircraft carrier that was converted from a warship to take off and land.

In September 1918, the British Navy converted a passenger ship under construction into the aircraft carrier Hundred Eyes Giant with an all-through flight deck. During the modification, all the original chimneys of the "Hundred Eyes Giant" were removed and converted into a horizontal exhaust duct leading from under the main deck to the tail of the bowl. Since the entire flight deck is very flat and empty, with almost no superstructures to be seen, this brand-new model of aircraft carrier is also known as a plain aircraft carrier.

At this time, the aircraft carriers were basically converted from other warships, and it was not until the birth of the Fengxiang that the first real aircraft carrier was produced.

In December 1922, the first aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, "Foshisho" was born. It was not modified, but was built according to the aircraft carrier design from the beginning, so it is considered to be the world's first real aircraft carrier.

With the launch of the Fengxiang, many aircraft carriers such as the British Competitive God and the American Lexington have begun to appear, and today there are many aircraft carriers in the world. As a Black Sea country, Romania's road to aircraft carrier has just begun.

As the soul of later generations, Edel certainly knows the power of aircraft carriers, but it is a pity that Romania’s position puts the aircraft carrier in an awkward position. Italy's Mussolini said that the Italian Bureau is the largest aircraft carrier, this sentence is that he does not have a clear understanding of the future. Then Edel said that the Black Sea could not accommodate an aircraft carrier, so this is the real situation.

In the Black Sea, which is 1,150 kilometers long from east to west and 611 kilometers wide from north to south, the effectiveness of aircraft carriers is minimized. Within two steps of going out, the enemy's shore-based aircraft was within the scope of the enemy's shore-based aircraft, and the exhaustion of carrier-based aircraft and shore-based aircraft is definitely a manifestation of pitfalls in the brain.

That's why the Romanian Navy is so obsessed with traditional warships such as battleships and cruisers. And Edel couldn't do anything that the cow would press his head without drinking water, so the road of Romania's aircraft carrier has been dragged to the present.

As for the Bolcescu, it was also promoted by Edel, and the Navy has been known for being males in recent years, so it was transformed with a fast freighter.

After removing all the superstructures and replacing them with thick solid wood panels, the unobstructed Borcescu is a plain aircraft carrier. Although Borcescu is a plains aircraft carrier, it can carry 24 combat aircraft for the transformation of the internal space. Among them, 12 of the Haihao fighters were transformed from Goshawk fighters, mainly for strengthening the landing gear and installing tail hooks. There are also 12 Ripon carrier-based torpedoes. This torpedo has not been developed in Romania before, so it was purchased from the UK.

This Ripon carrier-borne torpedo has a captain: 1120 meters, a wingspan: 1367 meters, a height: 391 meters, an empty weight of 1978, and a maximum take-off weight of 3350. It can carry an aviation torpedo. Its flight performance is the maximum level flight speed: 179, range: 660, practical ceiling: 3050.

The responsible person said that this aircraft is a product that is going to lag behind the times. But who made Romanian’t researched torpedo machines before, so they can only make up for it.

And this time, several Peng shipborne torpedo planes were parked at the end of the deck of the Borcescu, which seemed to be a flight test.

"The wind is going downwind and you can take off."

As the commander held the yellow hand flag and waved vigorously, the test pilot quickly started the plane. The plane jumped off the deck after accelerating.

"Successful."

The navy officers and soldiers on the deck immediately cheered for it.

Several planes were then released from the deck, which even cheered the people at the scene. Although they have seen planes take off many times, there are still not many planes flying on the deck, which is worthy of their joy. Because take off on the deck, the requirements for the pilot are much higher. It is not an experienced pilot who has not been trained. It is completely impossible to do this And even veterans have made mistakes, so every success of the flight is The test of the newly established navy carrier aviation.

No way, after all, an aircraft carrier is not comparable to land, and its deck length cannot be compared to land. Therefore, the naval carrier-borne aviation forces of all countries in the world are all outstanding among them.

As the captain, Major Fernandez was also watching the flight. Fernandez is a rare aviation faction in the navy, but it is different from the naval aviation faction of other countries. Fernandez argued that the navy needs a large number of aircraft to ensure reconnaissance and artillery calibration to ensure that the Romanian navy can control the enemy's movements at any time. Of course, for him to make such a claim, the Black Sea is still too restrictive for aircraft carriers.

However, although he was not optimistic about the aircraft carrier in the Black Sea, when he took over the post of captain, he still devoted himself to it. Manage the training of officers, soldiers and pilots during the day, and study the use of aircraft carriers by other countries at night. In just six months, Fernandez's understanding of aircraft carriers reached the highest level in the navy, as if he were the captain of the aircraft carrier alone.

And this test flight is just the beginning of aircraft carrier training, and a lot of training awaits them. Fernandez needs to watch his officers and soldiers display the results of training, but they still have enough time to train. I believe that the Romanian carrier air force will not be the only one of them.