Shipbucket

How 'bout... the US won the war as IRL, but the Japanese were allowed to keep Yamato*(which didn't go out on that waste of fuel commonly known as Ten-Go), and work from that point? That way we can use RL american equipment(which will be much easier on us all).

*Yes, this is highly unlikely, but the entire concept of a 1990's Yamato is contrived, but if it's going to be done(as a fun thought excercise, why the heck not), it might as well be done in the easiest way possible.

Why not give it to china ? The KMT can keep it to prove they are a big 4 power and can update it to defend the straits v PLAN gunboats.

JSB

The only "realistic" approach I can see is some sort of (ridiculous) scenario where Yamato is kept in harbor for the duration of the war (say it was kept at Kure because of repeated troubles with the engines, or in a rare moment of sanity, the IJN chose not to sortie the ship because of its immense fuel usage...). You could say it was hit and damaged during the US aerial bombardment campaign, but never sunk - maybe the superstructure was damaged, or maybe it was actually sunk but in an easily-salvageable location (like Kure harbor). After the unconditional surrender, it was eventually raised (maybe 1950 or so), and instead of being scrapped (which is exactly what would have happened...), it was refloated and used as a command ship or something with USN equipment (like most of the immediate post-war Japanese military).

Anyway, there's really no likely scenario where it survives past 1950, but for the sake of the thought experiment, I think the above might be your best bet.

JSB wrote: 2) Weserflug VTOL - if it was that easy why did they have so much fun with the osprey ?

The WP1003 never left the conceptual stage and experience ganes through the various Cold War VTOL projects shows that it never could have worked.
It would have been badly underpowered and impossible to control.

To expand a little on it it used a semi-tilt wing design which would have given it the worst characteristics of a tilt wing and tilt engine design in terms of controllability, reliability and aerodynamics. On top of that there doesn't appear to be any provisions for pitch control in hover at all.
And of course there's the fact that they simply didn't know how to make the power transmission.

The most napkin of all napkinwaffe, and that's saying a lot.

It's worth noting as well that the Weserflug is asking much less than the V-22 - no engine out capacity, miniscule capacity (from what I've read of the take-off weight, the only thing you could lift in a Weserflug is the flight crew)

@erik_t - surely the Amerika bomber takes that particular cake in an admittedly crowded field?

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apdsmith wrote:It's worth noting as well that the Weserflug is asking much less than the V-22 - no engine out capacity, miniscule capacity (from what I've read of the take-off weight, the only thing you could lift in a Weserflug is the flight crew)

They may not have asked much, but then they didn't have much either. They had an anaemic engine, no transmission, no means of providing pitch control in hover and no understanding of the aerodynamics involved.

apdsmith wrote:@erik_t - surely the Amerika bomber takes that particular cake in an admittedly crowded field?
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Well, two proposals got to working prototype stage, another two got to hardware stage and the fifth was in detailed design when the whole shebang was canned.

I think I should have used at the end of number 2.
JSB

Hi Thiel,

Oh, I agree - just gives you an appreciation of the work needed to get the V-22 working! (I could, and should, have added "no weird funky helicopter-propellors" for the Weserflug, too)

And I didn't know that about the Amerika bomber - are you referencing the merely ambitious Me264 or the full-on loonybins Silbervogel?

Regards,
Adam

apdsmith wrote:Hi Thiel,

Oh, I agree - just gives you an appreciation of the work needed to get the V-22 working! (I could, and should, have added "no weird funky helicopter-propellors" for the Weserflug, too)

Yeah but we all know that if they'd slapped a Swastika on the side of it it would have sprung directly from the paper and into the air, no testing or even assembly required.

apdsmith wrote:And I didn't know that about the Amerika bomber - are you referencing the merely ambitious Me264 or the full-on loonybins Silbervogel?

Regards,
Adam

Both the Messerschmitt Me 264 and the Junkers Ju 390 both flew as prototypes, the Focke-Wulf Fw 300 and the Heinkel He 277 were both under constitution.