Soviet, American And British Flying Aircraft Carrier Projects Of The '20s and '30s

[@wbertie2604]

"Go and check the skyhook" "I'm not falling for that old joke on my first day"

[@NM-wd7kx]

Having read the Great Glass Elevator as a child learning that sky hooks have been (several times) a serious consideration by non-crazy people was crazy

[@thestarlightalchemist7333]

​@@NM-wd7kxI have not read that book, surprisingly. What was a skyhook in that context?

[@ericpode6095]

and being sent to the stores for "a long weight". 😂

[@smooth0per8r5]

Fun little personal attachment to this video for me. My mom worked for Monterey Bay Research Institute in the 80's and 90's. They are the ones who discovered the Macon's crash site and my mom was one of the people who gave the historical deep dive on the Macon at MBARI's initial lectures about it that also happened to be given in the old airship hangar they stored it in while it was in service. Pretty sure she has a VHS with that lecture somewhere still.

[@sadwingsraging3044]

Put it up on KZbin before it gets lost!

[@concretedonkey4726]

I allways thought there is something uberably cute about I-16 and brewster buffalo... chubby and cute. Like child's idea of a WWII fighter.

[@MM22966]

Unironically true. If you go back and look at Looney Tunes or Fleischer Superman cartoons from those days, the fighters all have that look.

Don't forget Disney's pedro

[@fps079]

Marvelous story and content. The fact that parasite aircraft were ever successfully employed is brand new news for me. Thanks for this.

[@VikingTeddy]

Few channels have this much output and still manage to keep their quality even mediocre, yours is always great.. 😊

[@wbertie2604]

@@VikingTeddy the content quality is excellent and the narration is just about perfect. I'd happily listen to this chap narrate audio books, although that would put a dent in channel output.

[@davidg3944]

Fantastic early movie footage, most of which I'd never seen before. Thanks for putting this together, hopefully the "story for another day" will be forthcoming!

[@jamesburleson1916]

The Goodyear Airdock where they built the USS Akron and Macon is still standing at the Akron Fulton airport in Akron OH. It is a truly impressive building, and is currently being used for subscale lighter than air aircraft testing. It is so large that it reportedly has its own weather systems inside.

[@alexsis1778]

Yeah i've heard when they have both doors open they occasionally get clouds flowing through the building

[@jlvfr]

This idea kickstarted an entire genre in science fiction!

[@xxxm981]

>tfw no Crimson Skies game in like 16 years

[@joepapp01]

Just want to say what a great channel this is. I only discovered it late last week and I've watched quite a few videos--some even more than once. Keep up the good work!

[@quelin1]

Best start of my morning ever

[@bilalsadiq1450]

Haven't watched it yet, but I'm hoping there's a mention or clip of the plane chase scene from "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade".

[@doc_sav]

Nah man, this is serious shit.

[@NM-wd7kx]

​@doc_sav the more I learn in the quarter the more I appreciate the value of cultural comparison & examples

[@charlestaylor253]

No, because that was pure Hollywood 🐂💩.

[@georgewhitworth9742]

@@charlestaylor253So?

[@jonathan_60503]

I'm a little surprised you missed or didn't mention the earlier 1915/1916 attempts by the RNAS. "[Squadron Commander N F] Usburne devised the simple but brilliant expedient of suspended an armed BE 2c under an airship envelope similar to that adopted for the SS series. The idea was that it could patrol the skies near London as an airship then, when a Zeppelin was seen, it could dump its own ballast to climb quickly above it. The aircraft would already have its engine running an once in position it could be slipped to carry out an interception, opening the gas-bag valves as it departed so that the envelop would eventually fall to earth." [The Royal Navy's Air Service in the Great War]

[@B_Estes_Undegöetz]

16:55 Crazy snap rolls! Don’t think I’ve seen any quite so “snappy” in a video before!

[@DIREWOLFx75]

The I-16 may not have been the best fighter ever or anything, but very few aircraft could match its agility at the time.

[@charlestaylor253]

The Polikarpov I-16 was designed to be at least as maneuverable as it's direct biplane predecessor, the I-15...

[@BarFlyLS20A]

Great to see my beloved Akron and Macon making an appearance.

[@gavinhammond1778]

I would've happily sat through the cold war parasite fighter story too, just so you know. Thanks for the content.

[@Theonixco]

6:20 Gonna be that guy, Its Pronounced May-Cuhn. Its namesake is Macon Ga.

[@Matt_The_Hugenot]

Makes me wonder what a 1920s aerial war would have been like, wild.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

FWIW: At one time there was a plan by _Hammer Films_ in England to make a movie sequel[?] to *THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT* that would involve a German airship carrying parasite biplane fighters. For whatever reason the movie was never made.

[@charlestaylor253]

No. 'The People That Time Forgot', (1977), was made instead which featured a biplane flying boat/amphibian launched by a post-WWI British Antarctic rescue ship...

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@charlestaylor253 >>> But it still would have been a sequel to *THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT.*

[@am3lia420]

Just stopped for a coffee break, perfect timing to post as always! Looking forward to this one :D

[@majorbloodnok6659]

Thank you, a great treatment of this fascinating subject

[@RCAvhstape]

Yet another outstanding video, can't wait until you get to the more modern, and crazier, designs for flying aircraft carriers!

[@callenclarke371]

Excellent content. Very much looking forward to your video about the Mcdonnell Goblin & related efforts.

[@DIREWOLFx75]

I don't think i've ever seen anyone else mention that the Soviets actually achieved successful attacks with this.

[@SnakebitSTI]

Same, despite having heard about the tests multiple times.

[@robertkalinic335]

Its kinda funny cause in the entire section there is total of 3 comments mentioning soviet parasite concept, there is legit culture of parading the soviet dirty laundry several times around the town but when they actually do something right people dont care. Freaking long range precision strike Museum steals the video for me, i cant care less about bunch of lost airships.

[@WillKinton]

Mustard has a great video about it IIRC

[@WAL_DC-6B]

Nice 1/72 scale "box art" for your thumbnail. I think my brother has the Tupolev bomber with the parasite fighters plastic kit.

[@ramspace]

What great story telling. 👏

[@janwitkowsky8787]

Crimson Skies 2000. Solid game. A look into an alternative past, where Akron had functioned.

[@aslbaron1]

Very cool bit of flight history!

[@AbelMcTalisker]

I`m somewhat curious about the picture at about 3:30, as it shows a wartime BE2c suspended beneath a non-rigid gasbag. Since BE2 fuselages were sometimes used as gondolas for small coastal patrol airships, I wonder if somebody thought of suspending a full BE2 beneath a gasbag to increase the plane's high altitude loiter time. presumably, once a Zeppelin was sighted the plane would be released at a high enough altitude for an interception.

[@jonathan_60503]

This might have been from Squadron Commander N F Usborne RNAS's experiments in 1915/16 "Usburne devised the simple but brilliant expedient of suspended an armed BE 2c under an airship envelope similar to that adopted for the SS series. The idea was that it could patrol the skies near London as an airship then, when a Zeppelin was seen, it could dump its own ballast to climb quickly above it. The aircraft would already have its engine running an once in position it could be slipped to carry out an interception, opening the gas-bag valves as it departed so that the envelop would eventually fall to earth." [The Royal Navy's Air Service in the Great War] 21 Feb 1916 Usborn was killed testing this AP-1 concept, and further testing forbidden.

[@AbelMcTalisker]

@@jonathan_60503 I suspect you might be dead on here as the SS class was the type that used the BE2c (minus wings and tail) as a gondola and Usborn seems to have been involved in its development. The BE2, while it doesn`t have the best repetition as a fighter, does have the distinction of being the aircraft with the greatest number of Zeppelin kills, several having been brought down over the UK with this plane. The biggest issue it had was that a Zeppelin could always outclimb it, but an SS class airship with an independently flyable gondola is an interesting idea that might very well have worked. I wonder what went wrong?

[@jonathan_60503]

@@AbelMcTalisker That book says AP-1 apparently exceeded its equilibrium height causing gas to vent and causing instability; it went nose down causing the forward cables holding the plane to prematurely detach which overstressed and broke the rear cables; causing the BE 2c to sideslip and flip over; throwing one person out and the other wasn't able to recover before crashing

[@chs76945]

Great video on a fascinating topic! One tip: The Macon was named after the city of Macon, Georgia, and rhymes with "bacon" (long A and emphasis on the first syllable)

[@waynesworldofsci-tech]

These are going to make a comeback as drone carriers.

[@MM22966]

When I first heard about Soviet air-carrier fighters, I thought it was another silly/stupid/tragic wartime wunderwaffe, like bomb dogs or fighter ramming attacks. Then years later I learned just how ACCURATE their strikes were in Romania. You never can tell...

[@BalshazzarWastebasket]

the reason why it wasnt effective, is that they didnt paint the planes red. red makes things go faster

[@Nicolasgusso]

Underrated comment

[@xxxm981]

[[[[[CRIMSON SKIES OST INTENSIFIES]]]]]]

[@clydecessna737]

Well done; keep 'em comin'.

[@ElaniMoonstaf]

Merry Christmas ! Hope you have a lovely day🌲🌲

[@ThisPartIsAndrew]

"not an actual Camel" Well it could've helped in North Africa

[@Zbigniew_Nowak]

1:56 I'm sure they used some worn-out machine that was only suitable for scrap and stripped it of everything that was still of value.

[@dziban303]

Whoa I haven't seen some of that onboard footage where they're hooking up to the USN airships

[@animal16365]

Actually. The Washington Navel Treaty didn't set the number of aircraft carriers. It set the maximum overall tonnage per nation and maximum tonnage per individual ship.

[@nateharder2286]

I wonder how well a canard type aircraft would have worked.

[@sbvera13]

Makes me wanna hop into my old Hughes Devastator! :P

[@melvinbrotherofthejoker436]

I looooove the idea of motherships

[@jcameronferguson]

6:18 the pronunciation of “Macon” (named for Georgia’s third-largest city) is phonetically the same as “makin’ “. There was a minor league hockey franchise in the city known as the Macon Whoopee until 2001.

[@rshust]

Airships definitely have some unique vibes

[@navyreviewer]

It should be remembered the entire time the RN and USN worked on blimp carriers (like Akron) their construction of actual carriers was limited by treaty.

[@lnchgj]

Were there any 'lighter-then-air' fighters to make your comparison to? 00:03

[@badmoon5249]

Since aircraft of the era were hand started by manually spinning the propeller, how were the parasite fighters engines started?

[@zacklewis342]

Airflow?

[@MM22966]

"....not an actual camel." I have waited all my life for this joke to be made.

[@MisterOcclusion]

While I was aware of their parasite fighter program, I never knew that the soviets had used them operationally.

[@mENTALdRIFTER]

NaP: "unmanned Camels" my brain: _those cowardly jockeys_

[@iaco.mp4210]

Nice

[@georgefrancisyoung3702]

Drop Camels, a primary concern in the Outback.

[@jimsvideos7201]

2:00 There’s a vivid mental image 😅

[@MADGator]

After watching this video, I bet the folks of Macon, Georgia can't wait to get their mack on! Watch out ladies, it's the return of the mack... with parasite fighter escort! In all seriousness, I love these videos. The phonetic pronunciations have become a quirky signature at this point.

[@southronjr1570]

So, while I thoroughly enjoy your channel, I have to point out a few inaccuracies. Macon is pronounced May-cun. I should know, I have live near the city it was named after my whole life. It is in middle Georgia USA. The sparrow hawk used not the .303 cartridge gun, but what is know known as the 30-06. The .303 , used by britain and common wealth militaries is a rimmed cartridge firing a .311 dia, 174ge bullet at around 2500 feet per second, while the US was using a .308 diameter, 150gr bullet going around 2900-3000 feet per second. Bith the US Nd common wealth used the same macgine gun but different cartridges. Btw, the gun was a modified US m1919 belt fed machine gun designed by John Browing modified to be lightened and have an incread rate of fire compared to the ground based gun.

[@JohnyG29]

Yeah... ok mate. As soon as you guys start pronouncing our place names correctly we'll start giving a damn 😂

[@darriusdias]

10:25 - Pretty cheeky artwork there! 🍑

[@radiosnail]

I never knew that parasite fighters had been employed in combat.

[@luisgoncalo6166]

Sure they weren't flying aircraft carriers per se, but surely the german parasite aircraft also counts for this category? Aircraft like the fieseler r103r were air launched from heinkel he111's, and while the mistel system was ineffective it was sti remarcable.

[@CAPDude44]

I'd love to see a video about the B-36. Such a fascinating bomber, and very poorly known to the general public.

[@robertsolomielke5134]

Try B-36 Ficon project, it is an amazing dive into the extreme range , and tactical use of parasite aircraft. Yes, the B-36 by itself is still the top level of heavily gun armed heavy bomber. Like 16 20 mm cannons takes it.!

[@legoeasycompany]

It's shocking that with all the wacky stuff the Soviets did with the TB-3 during the interwar, making a flying mothership was the sanest and most useful one

[@confuseatronica]

I was going to say it must be frightening to be on the ground crew for a LTA when theres a couple of biplanes hanging underneath, but those things already had big gondola mounted props and all kinds of extra stuff under there. Imagine standing there holding a rope with this huge spiky thing blotting out the sun and swinging around in the slightest breeze eeek

[@TheWoblinGoblin]

Could you do a video on the shield helicarrier? 😜

[@ronaldbyrne3320]

Magnificent! Why didn’t we see P-51D Mustangs hanging off the wings and fuselage of a B-29? 😜😂

[@slateslavens]

gotta say, I'm always up for another pound for air to ground...

[@Tom-j2k8n]

The Brits pulled it off , Captain Scarlet

[@likwidchris]

The entire Crimson Skyes game was based on this idea

[@maxcleveland3446]

Then there was Tip Tow, Tom Tom, Goblin and Ficon.

[@BoredRanter-oy9gg]

Maybe I'm wildly overstating this but I get the impression that some modern drone carriers, both UAVs (see some "drone carrying drone" iterations) and USVs (e.g. see Ukrainian USVs carrying FPVs), are really a 21st century version of the "parasitic aircraft carrier" concept albeit designed around to meet the challenges of overcoming or creating A2/AD missile defences.

[@toddagard3664]

Just an fyi. The name Macon is pronounced with a long A.

[@keithmoore5306]

Macon is pronounced may-con not may-kahn over here, if you're ever in Georgia be careful wit that some down there can be a might testy to it being mispronounced! if you;'re looking for a follow on to this the Fi-con program using a B36 and the F84 would be a good one!!

[@msytdc1577]

Half of the country cannot pronounce water correctly, you're asking too much.

[@keithmoore5306]

@@msytdc1577 that was meat more as fair warning about the locals and their temperament, a lot of them take things way to personal these days with the current political climate.

[@sohrabroozbahani4700]

An airship the size of YES, soaring at the edge of space, running at solar power and a fusion reactor, armed with directed energy CIWS and enough ECM equipment to fry any SAM site that would dare to look at it, a giant dangerously powerful rotating 3 sides AESA array radar hanging underneath and a small flight deck on top, not longer than the one on a sea faring CVN, cause it already goes fast enough the offset between its speed and the aircraft it receives or lunches is negligible, it doesn't even need a catapult... that's how it should look in 21st century now... straight out of Strangereal...

[@picklerick8785]

I wonder if some madman proposed simply constructing a flight deck on top of a airship. I also wonder why just putting a ridiculous number of naval AA guns all over an airship just like a surface ship never happened even as an experiment.

[@crazypetec-130fe7]

That would be much too heavy, and airship frames weren't constructed to absorb the recoil of heavy guns.

[@WBtimhawk]

This is what they took from us and we should be mad about it.

[@thelandofnod123]

Sorry, Flying Officer, not Flight Officer.

[@mattshriner4897]

I DIDN'T KNOW THE SOVIETS USED IT IN COMBAT.

[@thesmirkingwolf]

"May-cuhn" said quickly and "Ackrun" or "Ackrin",

[@gavinmclaren9416]

USS Macon is pronounced like it rhymes with "bacon". Named after the city of Macon, Ga.

[@andrewreynolds912]

These things were used in combat and were actually pretty effective

[@williampratt1066]

By the way there’s no such thing as a “type 23 airship”, there was however HMA 23r that was the lead member of her class

[@msytdc1577]

So what is your point, that it should be called the 23r class, or that a common design shouldn't be named after the first of its class? Because if the former that's incredibly pedantic, and if the latter that's not how life works, unless designated otherwise a common design is named after the first of its kind, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, Zumwalt class destroyer, Ohio class submarine, etc., etc

[@williampratt1066]

@ the point being it was actually HMA 23r not one of her sisters and in general rigid airships we’re not referred to by class but by actual number, so the airships involved were HMA 23r(in 1918) and the R33 (in 1920) neither of these were sisters.

[@RCAvhstape]

3:15 cue Beavis and Butthead laugh

[@johnking6252]

Vladimir Batshitkoff ? Sounds more appropriate 🤪🤪🤪

[@charlestaylor253]

"Comrade Vakhmistrov, how will the fighters return to base after being launched?" "The pilots will be remembered as Heros of the Soviet Union, comrade..." 😉

[@SnakebitSTI]

Under their own power. Which they did successfully, as mentioned in the video.

[@robertkalinic335]

No way, soviets mentioned and there is nothing to complain about...just make up stuff who cares.

[@BrettBaker-uk4te]

"Ak-run" "May-kun". Pronounce Yankee please!

[@msytdc1577]

Brother, half the country says bo'el o' wa'er, you think city names are getting better treatment?

[@At-07461]

Cut the man some slack...