Thought I’d show off/tell about a project I am currently working on: Finishing building a 1/350 scale Iowa class battleship converted into a WWII era aircraft carrier. Yes, there was an actual proposal to do this back in WWII. But the project never got any further than the preliminary paper design stage. If converted, the Iowa carrier conversion would have looked very similar to the Essex class carriers in WWII.
Looks like you have a bunch of folks over at the other forum interested.
Did you consider trying the proposed rear flight deck setup? It was to be called an “amphibious battleship conversion”. I think there was a angled deck proposal and a V deck for Vtol or Helo’s. That would have made for an intereting arms race.
I will hop over to the other forum to watch with great interest.
That’s a cool project. The flight deck support is an interesting problem. In the real world the answer would probably have been a flaired structure. I wonder if you could chop up an Essex for those areas.
The fact that the '42 plan used a deck shorter than an Essex pokes at my knowledge of Naval achitecture.
But, I have my suspicions.
The sheer in the 01 deck on a BB is not a huge deal. But, it makes a significant impact on how/where you spot the hangar deck (which is a spar deck). The level of the hangar deck sets the height of the flight deck (which will be another spar–not armored–deck).
Becasue of the sheer, a hurricane bow, like Saratoga and Lexington was out of the question.
Now, much of the apparent depth of WWII flight decks is due to the “stuff” associated with them (catapaults, hydralics for elevators, ordnance lifts). Which is doubled by the drop catwalks surrounding them.
The actual deck structure is pretty light. If a fascinating engineering exercise in coping with upward moment from wind, and waves.
American design did tend towards more “beefy” looking members at wider spacing–which I think OP has well captured. So, totally unlike the lack, narrow, perforated, “eggcrate” seen on IJN ships of the era.
Maybe a close comparision to see how the US Navy done converting a aircraft carrier from a battleship would be the Shinano. It was interesting to learn that the Shinano was to be more of an aircraft transport than and actual carrier because there was no room for avgas storage, munitions, and parts for aircraft support nor sufficient hangar operations. Lexington and Saratoga had similar restrictions. A lot of ship with a lot of useless space because the design of a battleship was all around the big guns and the support system to fire those guns.