Something for anyone wanting a design challenge.

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Graham1973
Posts: 137
Joined: September 18th, 2011, 2:20 pm

Re: Something for anyone wanting a design challenge.

#31 Post by Graham1973 »

Something a little easier for Christmas. From an early novel by Hammond Innes, so early in fact it's more like the 1930s 'Ripping Yarns' than the novels he wrote post war...

Type IX (Mod) U-Boat
Dimensions: As per the Type IX U-Boats constructed prior to WWII.
Armament: 6 x 21in Torpedoes (4 Forward/2 Aft), 2 x 5.9inch guns (Fore and aft of the conning tower.), 2 x 1 20mm AA mounted on the conning tower.
Crew: 60

Quick note on this one, the author didn't give a detailed description, nor did he refer to them other than as 'U-Boats' but piecing together the details in the book the above is what he seems to have intended. The term Type IX (Mod) is my own invention.
Graham1973
Posts: 137
Joined: September 18th, 2011, 2:20 pm

Re: Something for anyone wanting a design challenge.

#32 Post by Graham1973 »

It's been a couple of years since the last of these, but I'd not found anything worthy until now.

From the 2005 novel Between The Hunters And The Hunted by Steven Wilson

Seelöwe
H Class Battleship (Fictional Design)
Main Battery: 12 x 16inch guns (Four Triple Turrets, Anton, Bruno, Caesar, Dora)
Secondary Battery: 12 x 6inch guns (6 twin turrets arranged three a side.)
Anti-Aircraft: 20 x 4inch (10 twin turrets (105cm/L65 C33 cannon)), 32 x 3.7cm (16 twin mounts). Lighter caliber weapons are also fitted but described as being "...far too many and far too widely dispersed..." to allow an accurate count to be made.
Crew: 2365
Displacement: 60,000tons (approx)
Length: 900ft (274.32m) (approx)
Speed: 37knots
Note: The H Class was a general project name for a series of battleship designs intended to succeed the Bismark Class drawn up in several versions between 1939 and 1944. Only the first iteration, the H39 class which would have featured a main battery of 8 x 16inch guns got anywhere close to production. None of the designs featured triple turrets. The author names the ship 'Sea Lion', I've given the German form of the name. From some surviving material it is known that Hitler favoured naming the first two members of the H39 class Ulrich von Hutten and Götz von Berlichingen respectively, but this was never formally announced.

There is a silhouette drawn up for the Seelöwe in the novel, if anyone is interested in tackling this one I am willing to forward it to you, just let me know in a PM.
Graham1973
Posts: 137
Joined: September 18th, 2011, 2:20 pm

Re: Something for anyone wanting a design challenge.

#33 Post by Graham1973 »

Since the last known volume of the 'Amanda Garrett' series has at last been released.

USS Cunningham (DDG-79)
Cunningham Class Destroyer
Length: 580ft (176.8m)
Weight: 8000 tons
Armament: 2 x 1 76mm OTO Melara (Fore and Aft), ?x Advanced Phalanx (1x4 25mm & 2x quad RAM), 10 x TT (10 x Mk. 50 Torpedoes (5 tubes a side, no reloads.)), 1x VLS (Divided into three arrays.) (36x Harpoon 2, 12x Standard HARM, 12x Sea SLAM, 12x Strategic Cruise Missiles, 36x VL ASROC, 4x Aquahawks (ASW Tomahawk), 148x LORAIN, 28x4 ESSM (total 112), 1x Zenith anti-satellite round (Takes up four cells in the VLS);
Aircraft carried: 4x BRAVE 2000 drones & 2x SAH-66 Sea Commanche (Initially only one is carried, a second is transferred from the USS Boone (FFG-28) before deployment south.)
Electronics: AN/SPY-2A Augmented AEGIS, ECM system called 'Wetball' which makes use of the microscopic iron spheres in the ships paint to distort radar signals.
Engines: Rafted gas turbines driving 2x 45,000hp electric motors in podded propulsors (30knots(+) (Official Speed.), 42 knots (Fastest speed reached in novel.)
Hullform: Stealth design with clipper bow and well deck. Radar signature that of a "...small cabin cruiser..." when operating under maximum stealth.
Note: Pennant clashes with that of the Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer, USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79). The author repeatedly refers to the ship in this novel and the next as being a 'Cunningham Class Destroyer' thus indicating that it is the lead ship in a series of vessels. Going by remarks in the authors afterward to 'Target Lock' (2002) it would appear that this was a freelanced extrapolation of the planned successor to the Arleigh Burkes, unless someone is more familar with what was being discussed in that regards during the late 1980s/early 1990s knows otherwise.
Graham1973
Posts: 137
Joined: September 18th, 2011, 2:20 pm

Re: Something for anyone wanting a design challenge.

#34 Post by Graham1973 »

From the pages of the 1958 J. E. MacDonnell novel 'Coffin Island', a complete surprise, what looks to be a Japanese Montana...

HIJMS Satsuma
Satsuma Class Battleship (Fictional)
Length: 'almost' 1000ft (304.8m)
Displacement: 50,000tons
Depth of Main Armour Belt: 2ft
Two Funnels
Four shaft propulsion system, 150,000Shp for 32knots
Steering system is specifically noted to be a copy of that used on the RN KGV Class Battleships
Main Battery: 12 x 16inch guns in four turrets (A, B, X, Y)
Other armament not specified.
Fitted with Radar (Type not specified)
Authors Description: "...he had no difficulty picking out the salient points. The four huge turrets as big as a house, with their guns projecting from their armoured faces like telegraph poles; the rearing rampart of the bridge stucture, topped with it's aerial-cluttered foremast, the two streamlined funnels, each broader than a railway tunnel; and most impressive and shocking of all, the enormous effect of her whole overall length."
Note: The name had last been used for a Satsuma Class pre-Dreadnought that had been sunk as a target ship in 1924. The class name is my own creation, the author does not give a specific class name for his creation.
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