I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 919: Clemenceau-class Aircraft Carrier

Major General Pierre was almost knocked out by this sudden good news.

A while ago, he thought he was about to be dismissed, maybe even kicked out of the military, but that was clearly not the case.

Not only was he not being dismissed, there was even a hint of promotion.

Although there was no "official promotion" in his position, Major General Pierre understood what "full responsibility for the carrier modification" meant.

At this time, the aircraft carrier was in the exploratory stage. If he was responsible for the modification, it meant that in the future, he would be the only one qualified to command the carrier operations.

This was a sea-fighting aircraft platform, a core command structure, with real power in his hands he might be "second only to one man, above all others," and his future was unlimited.

However, upon reflection, Major General Pierre's excitement gradually cooled down into rationality.

"General," Pierre said, "The reason I couldn't refute the British advisory panel at the meeting is partly that they had some valid points, such as even after extending the deck, it could only take off or land, but not both simultaneously."

Shire took out Stephen's data from his briefcase and placed it in front of Pierre: "Is this what you're talking about?"

"Yes." Major General Pierre responded, leaning closer and pointing to a line of data in the document:

"This is the takeoff and landing distance, takeoff requires at least 70 meters, and landing requires 80 meters."

"Even if we extend the deck length to 150 meters, 160 meters, or even longer, it would be very hard to achieve simultaneous takeoffs and landings."

Admiral Gephardt, who was sitting next to him, watching the proceedings, asked in confusion: "Why can't you take off and land simultaneously when you only need 70 to 80 meters, and the runway is 160 meters or even longer?"

Just divide the runway into two segments; use the front segment for takeoff and the back segment for landing, wouldn't that work?

Pierre turned the document down two pages and explained the landing experiment data:

"The reason is that during landings, there are often landing failures that require emergency go-arounds."

"During the landing process, pilots may misjudge or encounter unexpected situations."

"For example, encountering turbulence and airplane imbalance, pilots may judge it's unsuitable to land. At this time, they can increase the power and fly back up, making another landing attempt."

Upon hearing this, Admiral Gephardt understood: "So if takeoffs and landings are happening simultaneously, even if the deck is long enough, the landing planes don't have the opportunity to go around, otherwise they would collide with the taking-off planes."

Pierre nodded:

"Yes, this is one of the reasons the British advisors emphasized that lengthening the deck is unnecessary."

"And this also imposes tremendous psychological pressure on the pilots."

"Planes taking off are always worried that planes from behind might crash into them, and the result is likely to outweigh the gains."

Admiral Gephardt nodded thoughtfully.

From this angle, it indeed seems unnecessary to lengthen the deck.

"And there's this." Major General Pierre continued to flip through and found the takeoff and landing time:

"It takes about 10 minutes for one takeoff and landing, meaning it takes an hour to launch six planes."

"By the time all six planes have taken off, the fuel of the first plane has almost been half-consumed."

"Returning also requires an hour of landing time, which might mean the first plane can only fly a few dozen kilometers before it must return, meaning a squadron of six aircraft, with a combat radius of only a few dozen kilometers." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Admiral Gephardt was shocked by this data.

The combat radius of the plane is only a few dozen kilometers, which isn't even beyond the visible distance of the warship.

At first, he didn't believe it, but after Major General Pierre's calculations, Admiral Gephardt had to accept this reality.

"It can't even organize six planes for combat." Admiral Gephardt frowned, looking at Shire with disappointment: "Vice Admiral, should we reconsider this plan?"

Although this is a racing scenario against England, if the track is fundamentally impractical or doesn't serve a purpose, it's a waste of valuable resources and time.

Shire sipped his coffee, unhurriedly asked Major General Pierre: "Can the takeoff and landing time be shortened?"

Major General Pierre thought for a moment and replied:

"I'm not sure, Vice Admiral."

"My judgment is based on the experimental data provided by England, and we are still a blank slate in this area."

"If a definitive answer is required, I believe we would need at least several rounds of simulated flights and dispatches."

With a rigorous attitude, Shire silently praised; command of an aircraft carrier frowns upon wild guesses, and Major General Pierre would draw conclusions based on data, which is a good habit.

"What I mean is, if we can separate the takeoff and landing runways." Shire asked, "Could the time for each takeoff and landing be shortened?"

This time, Pierre didn't hesitate, confidently answered:

"Of course, Vice Admiral."

"Because their takeoffs and landings don't interfere with each other."

"But this again brings us back to our original problem, that there's no chance to go around during landings, which increases the difficulty of landing, and a failed landing could result in a disaster."

Shire did not respond, instead, he took out an aircraft carrier runway allocation map from his briefcase and placed it on the coffee table.

(The two figures above are of the Clemenceau-class carriers being developed by France since 1952, and the runway layout. The red indicates the landing runway, the blue line is the takeoff runway, green is the elevator, yellow is the parking area available for simultaneous takeoffs and landings)

Major General Pierre glanced at the sketch and was instantly stunned by the ingenious design, then after a brief second he treasured the sketch, holding it with both hands.

He looked up and down for a while, then suddenly burst into laughter: "Yes, this method, we've found it, it solves all the problems!"

Gephardt didn't quite understand: "This can solve the problem? All of them?"

"Of course." Major General Pierre nodded excitedly, holding the sketch closer to Gephardt: "See here, the landing area and takeoff area are at an angle, which allows landing planes to safely go around and does not interfere with the planes in the takeoff area."

Admiral Gephardt "oh"ed: "A very clever solution."

Glancing at Shire, wondering how this guy's head works to come up with this!

"Additionally," Major General Pierre continued:

"When there are no planes landing in the landing area, it can be converted into a takeoff area."

"In this way, where previously it took 10 minutes to take off a plane, now it becomes 5 minutes per plane, with the possibility of further time reduction."

"In other words, the time to launch a squadron of six planes would be shortened to under half an hour."

He spoke with increasing excitement, turning his eyes to Shire: "This idea is fantastic, Vice Admiral. It's unimaginable, just stagger the takeoff and landing areas by an angle, and achieve a perfect leap, how did you come up with it?"

Shire smiled without saying a word.

He didn't know how to answer, "I just thought of it!"

What upset Shire a bit is that historically, this type of carrier was named after "Clemenceau."