Things in the 160 pipeline

[Jel 37]

 

 

 

  Jel

[Stratos 3,168]

Still remember the flat airfields of first Moggy release of "Main body Sighted", how I loved those carriers!!

[RIBob 39]

Speaking of carriers, has anyone even created an accurate model of the "Graf Zeppelin"?  This link has some (possibly inaccurate) US Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) recognition drawings, and enough info is available to be able to render a fair reproduction. of the ship and its' aircraft:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_aircraft_carrier_Graf_Zeppelin#/media/File:Graf-Zeppelin-1.jpg

Note that within the text Adm. Raeder was asking for purpose-built fighter aircraft in lieu of the "navalized" Bf 109s, which had landing problems enough on dry land, let alone the deck of a carrier.  I'm guessing that the wider-stance FW-190, in navalized form, might not have been a candidate for such a role in the event that the GZ was used later on in the war.  Perhaps the original Stukas might have also been replaced by heavily modified FW 190s as well, thus easing maintenance issues.

Of course, such a carrier would be sent out with other ships, amongst them numerous destroyers, and possibly tankers and cruisers.  That this was common practice at the time was well-known to the Germans, and it is also highly likely that any such vessels would have their original AA armament heavily augmented, which again, followed existing trends.

Had the fortunes of war gone only a little differently, the GZ might have been used in combat.  That being the case, the re-creation of a GZ carrier is changed from a "What If", near-fantasy scenario, to a alternative history scenario that could easily have been, bit did not quite come off. 

Submitted for discussion.