Small Aircraft Carriers (2 Viewers)

[Shortround6]

Exhaust is coming out of the blade assembley in the picture, I have no idea of the velocity of the gases but unless you can get them to flow rearward you don't have thrust, at least useful thrust. Trying to push the airplane downwards doesn't count.
At cruise with the waste gate open you don't get much and even here, the angle of the gasses relative to the line of flight of the aircraft is not good.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Wouldn't it be wiser to treat carriers as consumables, make them as small as possible, and make as many as possible? Any thoughts?

They don't get much smaller than this…

 

[Shortround6]

It does help if you can carry a more effective warload than a few slices of last nights meat loaf.
Dropping your lunch on an enemy submarine is not very effective no matter how inedible it was.

 

[Admiral Beez]

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2gds8ag2k0s21.jpg&rdt=33249

 

[Howard Gibson]

Exhaust is coming out of the blade assembley in the picture, I have no idea of the velocity of the gases but unless you can get them to flow rearward you don't have thrust, at least useful thrust. Trying to push the airplane downwards doesn't count.
At cruise with the waste gate open you don't get much and even here, the angle of the gasses relative to the line of flight of the aircraft is not good.

The volume flow is 1710/2 in^3/min. All you need is the diameter of the exhaust pipe to the turbocharger.

 

[Shortround6]

The volume flow is 1710/2 in^3/min. All you need is the diameter of the exhaust pipe to the turbocharger.

Exhaust thrust is the mass (fuel and air) times the velocity of the gas squared.

It is the last part that gets tricky. Velocity of the exiting gas stream depends on the restrictions in the exhaust system (internal friction, bends, changes in system cross section) and the pressure of the atmosphere the exhaust stream is pushing against.

Now in order to actually use the thrust the exhaust stream does have to be aligned with the direction of flight of the aircraft. Exhaust pipe end and airflow should be 180 degrees from the direction of flight or as close as in practical.

That exhaust airflow is going straight down, angling the ends of pipes does not make the airflow change direction. It does keep the air from the forward speed of the aircraft from screwup the exhaust trying to get out.
Exhaust thrust applied at 90 degrees to the intended flight path does nothing for speed. Maybe this plane was trying for lift?
Not breathing your engine exhaust is also good.

 

[SaparotRob]

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2gds8ag2k0s21.jpg&rdt=33249

I was hoping it was a Grasshopper dropping sandwiches.

 

[EwenS]

LST "carriers"
Only a handful of LSTs were fitted with these temporary flying off platforms (take off only; no landings as back in the WW1 days) for use in the Mediterranean:-

LST 16 received a flying off platform sometime after the Sicily landings in July 1943 and is the LST in the second photo posted by AB in post #62. Side view here. Platform was 220ft x 16ft. It had been removed by June 1944 when she participated in the Normandy landings.

LST 337 was fitted with a flying off platform prior to the Salerno landings. Her deck appears a bit shorter. Again it had been removed by the time she participated in the Normandy landings in June 1944.

LST 386 was another with a platform similar to LST 337 It seems to have been fitted before the landings in Sicily in July 1943, but it had been removed by the time of the Op Dragoon landings in Aug 1944. 337 & 386 were both transferred to the RN in Dec 1944.

LST 906 (which is the LST in the first photo in AB's post #62) was completed on 27 April 1944 and served only in the Med. She was damaged in a collision and while being repaired (sometime between the end of May and the start of Operation Dragoon in early Aug) had the take off platform added, at the cost of the single 40mm mounted above the bow doors. It appears to be a slightly more sophisticated setup with a larger platform at the aft end and canted storage of the L-4s carried to each side. Again reported to be 220ft x 16ft.

Brodie System
Developed in 1943 for use on both land and sea. Used by RAF in Burma in 1944. First sea trial was on a merchantman in late 1943.

The first fitting on an LST was in late 1944. LST 776 (completed 20 July 1944) was converted by Oct 1944. It saw service first at Iwo Jima in Feb 1945 and then at Okinawa in April.

Apparently 25 conversions were planned at one point, but other than LST 776, the only two that I have been able to identify are LST 325 & 393. Both saw service in the Med and NWE and returned home to be refitted, including the addition of the Brodie gear. They were then scheduled for redeployment to the Pacific in 1945. I don't think either of them got there before the war ended.

Note LST 776 was given a ramp for launching the aircraft angled over the starboard deck edge. This must have been removable in whole or part because she had a number of liferafts installed down that side when she was in the Pacific. LST 325 was photographed with the Brodie gear but carrying an LCT(6) on her deck later in 1945.

 

[GreenKnight121]

More Brodie photos:

LST 776 - note that the catapult was for trials only, and was removed before LST-776 departed for Iwo Jima:

LST-325:

 

[SaparotRob]

I can just picture the catapult vigorously launching the Grasshopper's landing gear while the rest of the plane remains on board.

 

[ThomasP]

With Wile E. Coyote at the stick and ACME on the side of the catapult.