This kit is currently on its way and looks like a very interesting build. I’d like to modify to show it equipped with catapult configuration used to test launch Curtiss seaplanes in 1915/16.
USS North Carolina (ACR-12/CA-12) was a Tennessee-class armored cruiser of the United States Navy. The ship was built by Newport News Shipbuilding; she was laid down in March 1905, launched in October 1906, and was commissioned in May 1908. The final class of armored cruisers to be built for the US Navy, North Carolina and her sisters were armed with a main battery of four 10-inch (254 mm) guns, and were capable of a top speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph).
North Carolina spent much of her career in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea conducting training and visiting foreign countries. She went on short deployments to the Mediterranean Sea twice, the first in 1909 to protect American citizens in the Ottoman Empire, and the second during World War I, again to protect still neutral American citizens in the region. On 7 August 1914, as World War I broke out in Europe, North Carolina was sent on a patrol in the Mediterranean to protect then still neutral United States citizens in the region. She visited Jaffa, Beirut, and Alexandria before returning to Boston on 18 June, where she underwent an overhaul. The ship thereafter went to Pensacola, Florida, where she arrived on 9 September, to conduct experiments with naval aviation. She became the first ship to launch an aircraft using a catapult while underway on 5 November; these tests led to the widespread use of aircraft catapults aboard battleships and cruisers through the 1940s.[4]After the United States entered the war in April 1917, North Carolina was used to escort troop ships off the eastern coast of the United States. Following the war in late 1918 and early 1919, she was used to carry soldiers from the American Expeditionary Force back from France. In 1920, the ship was renamed Charlotte so her original name could be used for a new battleship, and she was decommissioned the following year. She was sold for scrap in September 1930 and broken up thereafter.
I love[ht] this era of ships. Some WW2 British admiral – forget which one – used to refer to these classes of ships as ‘bagpipe cruisers’…because of all the bloody great pipes sticking out! [:D][Y]
Here’s a close-up of the stern-mounted catapult; now I have to find a 1/700 model of one of the single engine Curtiss seaplanes launched from the NorthCarolina; found a 1/700 version of the twin-engine H-12 flying boat!
Overhead view of the USS North Carolina (Armored Cruiser No. 12) looking aft, with the design of the catapult track and storage tracks shown… The ship is moored at Naval Aeronautic Station Pensacola, Florida in 1916. On 5 November 1915, Lieutenant Commander Henry C. Mustin made the first catapult launching from aboard a ship off the North Carolina.
I’m no engineer, but I can’t figure out how a plane on the side rails can get to the launch rails. Clearly they are still in the assembly stage, or I am missing something.
Also, firing aft is no longer possible either. Seems like a lot of work just to launch a plane.
The USS North Carolina (Armored Cruiser No. 12) getting underway at Naval Aeronautic Station Pensacola, Florida in 1916. A good view of the cruiser’s armament and the catapult configuration on the ship. An AB-3 Flying Boat is spotted on the catapult.
No doubt like most all ship borne float plane operations a crane was involved.
I am trying to identify the catapult mechanism in there. Yes maybe photo is while “under construction”. I’m curious to see what a 1/700 basket mast looks like!
That’s probably intentional. So that the thransport dolly cannot be accidentally loaded onto the launch rails.
As noted above, a crane was likely used for the transfer. If as simple as a spar stood up by the bosun’s mates and rigged from the mizzen mast, and all in an as needed sort of way.
Wasn’t this launch a one-time event just to show the feasibility of such a launch. Worry about getting plane back one board mave have not been of much concern at time.
Memory n this one is fuzzy. The first tests of a Sopwith off of USS Texas were entirely ad hoc, using a wooden platform stood up on the Bravo turret. Later tests were for Operational feasability, so they needed to address things like stowing the a/c as well as launch and recovery. North Carolina was fully equipped with amidships boat cranes with plenty of reach for aircraft recovery, and re-spotting back to the tracks (on both sides).
Unfrtunately The History of American Fighting Ships gets pretty lean after the fourth volume or so, so ship names as far back in the alphabet as North Carolina get short shrift.
Some older pictures of these ships. BUT, they are artists renderings and I don’t think with the rule of “artistic license”, that I would even consider calling them accurate! They do look nice in their frames though!
Did you get your kit yet? Can’t wait to see it. I’ve built several Combrig kits and I like them. I have a 1/350 Scharnhorst (SMS) in my stash for some day.
https://www.navsource.org/archives/04/acr12/acr1210.jpg