Lingyun
Abstract: There is a chicken first or an egg first? This has always been a question of endless disputes, and there are similar issues in the military, such as which one, the aircraft carrier or the carrier-based , appeared first?
There is chicken first or egg first? This has always been a question of endless disputes, and there are similar issues in the military, such as which one, an aircraft carrier or a carrier-based aircraft, appeared first?
Who will appear first or the carrier-based aircraft For most people, it is definitely a philosophical question similar to the chicken or egg. From the logic itself, the reason why it is called a "carrier-based aircraft" is as the name suggests, "the aircraft carried by the warship ". In this way, it is natural that there should be aircraft carrier (chicken) and then carrier-based aircraft (egg).
In fact, this is true. The aircraft was invented much later than the warship. The aircraft boarded the deck of the warship even later, but please don’t ignore one thing: the warship carrying carrier-based aircraft does not have a runway-style flight deck, and the carrier-based aircraft cannot take off and land with a wheeled landing gear like a landing gear in a landing airport. The carrier-based aircraft can only remove the wheels, replace them with a boat-type float, live on a platform temporarily built by the warship, and hang it from the ship to the sea through a crane, and then take off on the sea with its own power. When landing, it lands on the sea near the warship, and then tow it with a small sampan to the next side of the warship and then use a crane to lift the deck platform. The warship that releases or reclaims the carrier-based aircraft must be suspended during operation. The efficiency of releasing and recycling the aircraft is inefficient, and it is greatly affected by the weather and sea conditions. Aviation operations must be carried out in a calm environment.
At this time, aircraft were not convenient to store and maintain on warships and did not have real combat capabilities. Therefore, the warship carrying aircraft can at best be called "aircraft carriers" and cannot be called "aircraft carriers". Or called seaplane and seaplane mothership.
As early as 1909, French inventor Clement Edel summarized the characteristics of a truly "aircraft carrier" in his book "Military Flight": "A spacious and flat take-off and landing deck, aircraft elevator, island superstructure and hangar, and the high speed that warships should have." It should be said that he summarized it very well. Until now, the concept of aircraft carriers has basically met these characteristics.
Although American pilot Eugene Erie took off and landed from the laying takeoff and landing decks in 1910 and 1911 respectively, the USS Birmingham and the "Pennsylvania" cruisers were in anchorage, but the warships that matched Mr. Edel's description were still like ladies hiding from everyone else, and still did not appear on the stage of history.
August 2, 1917, this is definitely a memorable day. British Royal Navy Major Ernest Dunning (the then commander of the carrier-based aircraft unit of the USS Furious) was flying a normal-looking Thorpeways "Puppy" fighter, and landed on the bow flight deck of the cruiser "Furious" by sliding.
It should be noted that the "Furious" was originally the No. 3 ship of the Brave-class light cruiser. In order to take off conventional land fighters, the design was changed, the bow turret and all superstructures in front of the bridge were removed, and a flight deck was laid for the aircraft to take off, while the mast and rear turret were retained at the stern.
The moment Dunning's plane wheel touched the flight deck, a group of officers and sailors on the deck of the "Furious" rushed up, reaching out to grab all the flying mechanisms they could catch, and grabbed the plane with all their hands and feet - it was completely human-braking. Although this process is dangerous, the landing of Major Dunning, who is skilled and brave, not only made him the world's first pilot to land on the deck of a warship on sailing, but also set a precedent for warships to recover ordinary aircraft (rather than seaplanes) at sea through conventional deck landing.But Dunning, the brave aviation pioneer, died in another landing test a few days later because the landing speed was too high and the ground personnel could not stop in time, causing the plane to rush out of the flight deck and fall into the sea.
It is obvious that when Major Dunning's conventional wheeled landing gear fighter successfully completed takeoff and landing on the front flight deck of the "Furious" in the sense, the real aircraft carrier-based had appeared. At the same time, although the "Furious" that released and recycled these aircraft had hangars and aircraft lifts, there was no island superstructure, and there was only the "four-dislike" of the takeoff deck and no landing deck, which was still different from the conceptual elements of the "aircraft carrier" defined by Mr. Edel.
Although there were already fixed carrier-based aircraft troops on the USS Furious at that time - 3 Short-184 water reconnaissance aircraft and 5 Thorpeways "Puppy" fighters, it was far from the real aircraft carrier. So, in other words: when carrier-based aircraft appear and can be used on a large scale, the real "aircraft carrier" has not yet appeared.
It was not until the "Hundred-eyed Giant" , which was officially put into service in September 918, adopted a full-purpose flight deck, which was initially equipped with the characteristics of an aircraft carrier and can be called the prototype of an aircraft carrier. Without the catalysis of war, it would not have been so fast. However, the "Hundred-Eyed Giant" that was born in a hurry in the war has not had time to accept the baptism of the war, and World War I was over. Due to the end of the war and the rapid development of aviation technology, the Hundred-Eyed Giant was obviously behind, so it was soon changed to training aircraft carriers for naval aviation pilots.
In April 1930, the "Hundred Eyes Giant" was converted into reserve. It received the second large-scale modification in 1932 and the third large-scale modification in 1936. After the World War II began in 1939, the "Hundred Eyes Giant" had become a specialized training ship, but because of the British Navy aircraft carriers suffered heavy losses in the early stages of the war, such as the "Brave" , "Glory" and "Ark Royal" aircraft carriers sank one after another. In addition, the "Excellent" was also severely damaged and had to enter the shipyard for overhaul. Faced with the gap in the number of aircraft carriers, the British Navy had to re-open the old "Hundred-Eyed Giant" to take advantage of its remaining energy and carry out combat missions. He did not retire until 1944 in the late war, and was removed from the British Navy on May 6, 1946, and dismantled in December 1946.
Moreover, the "Hundred Eyes Giant" was originally built as a passenger ship, but was later converted into an aircraft carrier. The real pure aircraft carrier designed and built as an aircraft carrier from the beginning was the "Sports God" , which started construction in 1918. However, although the "Fengxiang" of Japan was only started in 1919, it was built in 1922, earlier than the "Sports God" and won the honor of the world's first aircraft carrier.
Therefore, the result of the "chicken and egg theory" of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft is very clear: first there is egg (carrier-based aircraft), then there is chicken (aircraft carrier).
(The picture in this article is from the Internet)
