F4F-3S "Wild Catfish" Seaplane Carriers

[el cid again]

Max Speed 272 mph

Cruise Speed 220 mph

Maneuverability 21

Durability 10

Endurance 148 minutes (x 220 mph = 9 hexes transfer 3 hexes extended 2 hexes normal)

6 x .50 cal Forward Guns

2 x 100 pound bombs

ROC 1875 ft/min

Operational Ceiling 21784 feet (= 24,204 Service Ceiling)


This aircraft will ONLY be found in RHSBBO series scenarios (including RPO and PPO) - which are less carrier focused and which feature more flying boat Patrol units vice fixed wing Navy bombers. The BBO scenarios set are probably more "historical" than the CVO set is - because it represents thinking before the war and during the first six months of the war. Changing naval planning is very difficult and not very likely to happen effectively in time to matter.

[showboat1]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
The super secret Allied weapon is finally going to get its day in the sun! (getting shot down in droves by Zeroes but who cares?)

[CobraAus]

Cant find profile side and top art if anyone can find please post

Cobra aus

[treespider]

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/usplanes/aircraft/catfish.htm

[CobraAus]

thanks a good start

Cobra

[JeffroK]

Ah, You could add a Float Spitfire and a Float C-47, did the get a B-17 on floats ??

[showboat1]

Nope, but there may have been a version on skies, you'd have to ask the players from the frozen tundra that one.

[m10bob]

Sorry it took so long.[;)]

[el cid again]

Those who think the US / Allies always had better planes should look hard at this one. It was Johnny come lately - inspired indirectly by the N1K1 (the original Japanese concept) and directly by the A6M2-N (which, like this one, was an improvisation when the N1K1 was protracted in development). But while it came very late - it was not very competative with even the A6M2-N - it was not an original concept - it was not part of a family of float fighters (that could upgrade) - and it was a most marginal aircraft - in spite of considerable excitement surrounding its development.

[m10bob]

Look at this nice scratch-built model!

[showboat1]

Very nice.  Did you build it yourself? 

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: showboat1

Very nice.  Did you build it yourself? 

Uhhh...no...but I FOUND it myself[:D]

[showboat1]

I'm still very impressed that you "found" a Wild Catfish model.

[CobraAus]

result of what you guys sent and 2 hours to put together
a WildCatFish Side

Cobra Aus

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: CobraAus

result of what you guys sent and 2 hours to put together
a WildCatFish Side

Cobra Aus

That is massively awesome Cobra!!

[el cid again]

The problem with the entire USMC concept of AVs as "seaplane carriers" circa 1940 is time to execute:

by the time the Catfish can be ready for service it will be pretty obsolescent - mid 1943. Only 7 AVs of appropriate design will remain to complete by then: these I have given a VMF squadron each. They also are supposed to have a squadron of some sort of dive bombers - but I have not worked that out. Nor have I figured out what to do with the seven other seaplane carriers that appear sooners - 4 start the war. We could put a seaplane unit on them that upgrades to the Catfish - giving them fighter cover eventually.

The big tenders apparently were all able to hoist a flying boat on board. Like the Akitsushima - only they are not so famous for it.

Remember - the Catfish is only in the BBO scenario set - and the seaplane carrier versions of the AVs also are only in BBO type scenarios (BBO/RPO/PPO). The Japanese also build extra more ships of this sort. And the thinking of the day was that it would take a long time to build airfields - so planning did not include Seabee's on the scale eventually done.
In these scenarios I have removed 26 regiments of USN engineers - which may make the domination by land planes take a bit longer to occur.

[el cid again]

Since the Marines wanted convertable dive bombers - planes that could operate on floats or wheels - we might just abstract it out - and let the dive bombers be SBDs assigned to the "seaplane carriers." They could actually launch without floats - since they had (or were planned to have) a catapult.

[m10bob]

Had those Wildcatfish been deployed, one might ponder the purpose. I suspect they would have been good for convoy escort.
If so, perhaps any small cargo ship might have been able to carry one?
One further, maybe a special class of ship to carry them in convoy?
Surely this was the intent with those few catapult one shot Hurricanes..

[saj42]

Ooohhh the CAM ships - a hastily improvised solution to the Fw200 Condors, shadowing North Atlantic convoys, relaying info to the wolfpacks

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: Tallyho!

Ooohhh the CAM ships - a hastily improvised solution to the Fw200 Condors, shadowing North Atlantic convoys, relaying info to the wolfpacks

Exactly!!!!..(Another fine "what if" idea which had limited real life use..)