I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France

Chapter 923 Clemenceau Class Aircraft Carrier
Major General Pierre was almost knocked unconscious by this sudden good news.

Not long ago he thought he was going to be fired and even kicked out of the army, but he didn't expect that to be the case.

Not only will you not be fired, you will also be promoted.

Although there was no promotion in his position, Major General Pierre understood what it meant to be "fully responsible for the transformation of the aircraft carrier."

The aircraft carrier is in the exploratory stage at this time. If I am responsible for the transformation, it means that I will be the only one who will use the aircraft carrier and be qualified to command the aircraft carrier in combat in the future.

This is a fighter jet platform at sea and a core command organization. The real power in their hands is probably "second only to one person and above ten thousand people", and their future is limitless.

But after thinking it over, Major General Pierre's excitement gradually cooled down and he returned to his rationality.

"General," Pierre said, "I was unable to refute the British advisory group at the meeting because at least part of what they said made sense. For example, after the deck is extended, you can only take off or land, not both at the same time."

Charles took out the data Stephen had given him from his briefcase and handed it to Pierre: "Is this what you're talking about?"

"Yes." Major General Pierre responded, leaned closer to open the file, pointed to a line of data and said:

"This is the take-off and landing distance. It takes at least 70 meters to take off and 80 meters to land."

"Even if we extend the deck distance to 150 meters, 160 meters or even longer, it will be difficult to achieve simultaneous takeoff and landing."

Lieutenant General Geprat, who was sitting nearby and watching the show, asked in confusion: "It only takes 70 to 80 meters to take off and land. Why can't a runway of 160 meters or even longer take off and land at the same time?"

Wouldn't it be enough to divide the runway into two sections, with the front section used for takeoff and the back section used for landing?
Pierre flipped the document down two pages and explained the landing experiment data:

"The reason is that landing failures often occur during landing and emergency go-arounds are required."

"The pilot made an error in judgment or encountered an unexpected situation during the landing process."

"For example, if the aircraft is unbalanced due to turbulence and the pilot determines that it is not suitable for landing, he can increase the power to regain liftoff and make another landing attempt."

Geprat understood it after hearing this: "So, if takeoff and landing are carried out at the same time, even if the deck is long enough, the landing plane will not have the opportunity to take off, otherwise it will collide with the taking-off plane."

Pierre nodded:
"Yes, that is one of the reasons why the British consultants stressed that there was no need to lengthen the deck."

"And this will also put tremendous psychological pressure on pilots."

"The plane taking off is always worried that the plane behind it will hit it, and the result is likely to be more trouble than gain."

Lieutenant General Geprat nodded thoughtfully.

From this perspective, there does seem to be no need to extend the deck.

"And this." Major General Pierre continued to scroll down and found the take-off and landing time:
"It takes about 10 minutes for one takeoff and landing, which means it takes one hour for six planes to take off."

"By the time all six planes had assembled, the first plane's fuel had been nearly half consumed."

"It takes another hour to land on the way back, which means the first plane can only fly a few dozen kilometers before returning. That means the combat radius of a squadron of six planes is only a few dozen kilometers."

Lieutenant General Geprat was shocked by the data.

The combat radius of the aircraft was only a few dozen kilometers, which was not even out of the visual range of the warship. He did not believe it at first, but after Major General Pierre made some calculations, Lieutenant General Geprat had to accept this reality.

"It can't even organize six planes to take off for combat." Lieutenant General Geprat frowned and looked at Charles with disappointment: "Lieutenant General, should we reconsider this plan?"

Although this is a change of track to compete with the UK, if this track is simply not feasible or has no effect, it would be a waste of precious resources and time.

Charles drank his coffee and calmly asked Major General Pierre: "Can the take-off and landing time be shortened?"

Major General Pierre thought for a moment and replied:
"I'm not so sure, Admiral."

"My judgment is based on experimental data from the UK. We still have no clue in this regard."

"If you want to give a definite answer, I think it will take at least a few simulated flights and dispatches."

Charles secretly praised his rigorous attitude. Aircraft carrier commanders are reluctant to speak without thinking, but Major General Pierre will draw conclusions based on data, which is a good habit.

"I mean, if we can separate the take-off and landing runways," Charles asked, "can we shorten the single take-off and landing time?"

This time Pierre did not hesitate. He answered with certainty:
"Of course, Admiral."

“Because their takeoffs and landings do not interfere with each other.”

"But this goes back to our original problem. There is no chance of a go-around during landing, which increases the difficulty of landing and is likely to cause a disaster if the landing fails."

Charles didn't answer. He took out a carrier runway allocation map from his briefcase and put it on the coffee table.

(The above two pictures are of the Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier developed by France in 1952, and the runway plan. The red line is the landing runway, the blue line is the take-off runway, the green line is the elevator, and the yellow line is the parking area available for simultaneous take-off and landing)

Major General Pierre glanced at the sketch and was instantly shocked by the ingenious idea. He was stunned for a moment, then picked up the sketch with both hands as if it were a treasure.

He looked up and down for a long time, and suddenly laughed: "Yes, this is the method, we found it, it solves all problems!"

Geplatt didn't understand. "This will solve the problem? All of it?"

"Of course." Major General Pierre nodded excitedly and held the sketch in front of Geprat: "Look here, the landing area and the take-off area are at an angle, which allows the landing aircraft to take off safely without interfering with the aircraft in the take-off area."

Lieutenant General Geprat said, "Oh!" "That's a very clever idea."

As he said this, he glanced at Charles. What on earth was in this guy's head that he could actually think of doing this!
"In addition," Major-General Pierre continued:
“When there are no aircraft landing at the landing zone, it can be converted into a take-off zone.”

"In this way, the original 10 minutes for a plane to take off can be reduced to 5 minutes, and there is the possibility of further shortening the time."

"That is to say, the time it takes to launch a squadron of six fighter jets will be shortened to less than half an hour."

He became more and more excited as he spoke, and turned his eyes to Charles: "This is a great idea, Lieutenant General. It's hard to imagine that just by staggering the take-off and landing zones by an angle, a perfect leap can be achieved. How did you come up with this?"

Charles smiled and said nothing.

He didn't know how to answer, but that's what I thought of!
What made Charles unhappy was that this type of aircraft carrier was actually named "Clemenceau" in history.

(End of this chapter)