jamesdevice
Offers a third solution in the land vs carrier dispute.
Well, in truth if a sea-plane strike force really took off, carriers would have gotten the short-end of the stick.
Or would potential sea-state problems be too much of an issue?
I suppose it depended on where you'd attempt to land, but modern day with night-vision technology such an aircraft could takeoff and land at night without trouble.
Harley Quinn
Oddly enough I don't think even the RAF would still be using a 55 year old design in front line service though, and don't pull the B52 thing, the current frames are only 50.
Irrelevant, for the following reasons
1.) The P6M was actually a newer design than the B-52
- The XB-52 first flew in 1952; the XP6M first flew in 1955
- The YB-52 first flew in 1954; the YP6M first flew in 1958
- The B-52A first flew in 1955; the P6M-1 was to enter service in 1959 or 1960.
2.) If the P6M entered service, it's likely there would have been several variants of the P6M built of which the newest ones hypothetically could have remained in service until present.
Willard Whyte
I think he meant the total number of years in service...
John Farley
I thought they were already flying some on fruit and veg
Are you talking about something like biodiesel, or are you talking about ethanol, or something else?
I don't think it's a good idea to make fuel from fruit and vegetables because it will drive up the price of food; as for biodiesel, you don't need fruit and vegetables to do that; you can make biodiesel from deep-fryer oil, methanol and lye.
gasax
The fleet would have to have access to sheltered water - sheltered not just from the weather but also from 'bad people and things'.
For Libya, you could operate out of the Mediterranean, use aerial refueling as necessary; then attack Libya with cruise-missiles, or overfly Libya and use precision guided bombs. At low-altitude it could fly at Mach 0.9, and behaves better than a B-52.
Still, there are numerous land-bases in the mediterranean that could be used for the same purpose and I think a B-1, an A-10, or an F-18 would be better suited for the task.
LowObservable
There's quite a lot out there about the tech, but not so much on operational plans. What were they going to do, lurk in a fjord in Iceland and mine the
out of Murmansk?
Actually, in those days that seems like it might have been a good idea
The nuclear-powered concept was a different and much larger aircraft.
Okay, that makes sense. How much larger anyway?
... doesn't talk about turboramjets at all.
I'm guessing the statement about turbo-ramjets or J58's was either misinformation, or was information that pertained to a proposed Mach 4 seaplane which Convair did some work on.
The original planned engine was the Wright J67, an Americanized Olympus.
Well, as I understand it, it was a more powerful variant of the Bristol Olympus's that were then in service. Eventually more powerful variants were developed obviously.