Aircraft carriers/time of launch

[gamer321]

Howdy all,

Okay, talking about IJN & US carriers of WW2. How many aircraft could the launch and send toward a target in an hour. Are we talking half there complement (30-45) or is an hour enough time to launch "everything they have" and get the planes moving toward the targets.
Anyone have an idea, the research I have done on Midway, Coral Sea, hasn't yeilded this information yet.

Thanks for any help.

[renrich]

At Santa Cruz, because Hornet was out of action, a damaged Enterprise landed 47 planes in 43 minutes. I would think if a carrier is ready takeoffs would be faster. That same battle the Enterprise launched a CAP of 25 F4Fs between 1251 and 1305. Of course, we are talking the cream of the crop!

[OGGleep]

Here is an article that might give you some additional insight.


Set and Drift: Doctrine Matters why the Japanese Lost at Midway | Naval War College Review | Find Articles at BNET.com

Was watching a show on the history channel (one of em) that said that 200 plane strike was launched in 10 minutes. Obviously didn't account for the entire process.

As the article points out, Jap carriers had closed hangers, which ment they couldn't warm up the engines below deck, which in turn had some seroius implications.

US carriers on the other hand.....

Hope that helps a little bit.

[renrich]

OG, thank you for your post. Very interesting information about Japanese carrier operations.

[ccheese]

I know you're talking WW-II, but FYI, the newer US carriers (with 4 cats)
can launch an aircraft every 20 seconds !! Probably faster it they really
had to. They could launch one from the canted deck and one from the
bow at the same time.

Charles