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How do I get aircraft from the USA west coast to Pearl Harbor not using CV's. I have the old original paper manual, it says there are AKV transports for doing this. I'm only 7 turns into the war and see I have none of these available, although the ship listing says there is one in Columbo, but when I go there it doesn't show it's there. Do these arrive later or are there other ships that can transport aircraft other than CV's? Thanks.

You can load aircraft onto most cargo ships and transports (AKs,xAKs, etc.) You can fit one airgroup per ship. They'll arrive at their destination damaged (disassembled for shipment) and need to be reassembled when they reach their destination. But they'll arrive. This is how most airgroups get shipped overseas as AKVs are rather rare and carriers usually have more important tasks things to do.

On Page 113 of the (original) manual there is an extensive table stating which ship types can carry airgroups if in the right type of task force.

Platoonist wrote: Sat Nov 23, 2024 2:16 pm You can load aircraft onto most cargo ships and transports (AKs,xAKs, etc.) You can fit one airgroup per ship. They'll arrive at their destination damaged (disassembled for shipment) and need to be reassembled when they reach their destination. But they'll arrive. This is how most airgroups get shipped overseas as AKVs are rather rare and carriers usually have more important tasks things to do.


Commercial Load.jpg

A bit more on this. xAKLs can only be in Transport TFs to carry aircraft, not Air Transport. What's the difference? Aircraft carried in a Transport TF are disassembled to the extent that wings and props are removed and crated separate from the fuselage, so they take 3 days to reassemble after landing (I assume some Air Support is required at destination). In an Air Transport TF (xAKs/AKVs) the aircraft are defueled and partially disassembled. When they are unloaded they can be reassembled and fueled in 1 day.

And another thing on sending air units by sea: if the ship gets sunk, you lose the entire air unit including all or most pilots. The way to try get around this is to split the air unit before sending it, then load it on multiple ships and even in multiple TFs. If part of the air unit makes it to destination it can take replacements but may have some training to do.

Fortunately you can usually "buy back" the lost air unit from Air Losses -> Destroyed air groups screen.

Takes Political Points and time, though.

In addition to the fine info already provided, many of the AKVs available must be created by the player by converting AKs and xAKs.

On the first turn, before moving any ships, you should examine every one of your cargo transports to see which can be converted to another, more valuable ship type. You should also monitor all reinforcement ships for this purpose.

Many of the available AEs and AKEs must be created this way as well.

Also note that restricted air groups like those assigned to the West Coast HQ cannot be loaded on ships regardless of ship type.

The Allies can only convert one xAK into an AKV and thats a British Empire class. They do however get 5 dedicate AKV, 3 Br and 2 US.

For Japan, any Aden or Lima class can be converted.