Finding Forrestal Class... The First Supercarriers...

Book

Support This Channel
Join this channel to get access to perks:

Bilgepumps / Social Media Links

Other Places to Find Dr Alex Clarke

00:00 Finding Forrestal Class... The First Supercarriers...
06:50 Shameless Book Plug
10:48 Part 2
22:00 Part 3
33:00 Part 4
44:00 Finale

[andrewcox]

You also need to think that for a lot of smaller nations, a USN carrier group brings as many combat aircraft as their actual Airforce.

[davidlavigne]

My dad served aboard both the USS Forestall (CVA-59) and USS Saratoga (CVA-60) from 1956 thru 1958 in the VF-101, a Fighter squadron then equipped with the F4D Skyray, the first delta winged supersonic interceptor that the US Navy acquired. If one looks up VF-101 on Wikipedia, one may see a picture of the aircraft of which he was the Plane Captain (Navy version of a Crew Chief) being launched from the HMS Ark Royal in 1957. (Fighter 107) He was stationed aboard her from the USS Saratoga during NATO Operation Strikeback in September thru October, 1957. He spent about three weeks aboard the Ark Royal, which he enjoyed meeting his RN counterparts. He did develop a dislike of RN chow, well particularly mutton and kidney beans which became a lifelong aversion. This was a great tribute to the Forestall Class. Thanks Dr. Clarke.

[scootergsp]

Best wishes for a full recovery soon, Dr.Clarke.

[canuckled]

I had many hours playing with my model USS Forrestal as a kid. It had the late '70s airwing providing cover for B-25s off USS Hornet

[patrickradcliffe]

The Navy was scrambling for Nuclear wrapons delivery before the revolt of the Admirals was the United States carrier with the really only be Nuclear strike
carrier. The Forrestal class was the consolation prize for being Nuclear being a sort general purpose nuclear strike carrier.
12:06 the logic behind the placement of the port elevator was so that it could ready aircraft from the hangar right to catapult two. Each elevator was tasked with being able to bring planes from the hangar and go directly to an assigned carapult. NAVAIR found during operations that this layout was sub optimal with port elevator being forward and two elevators behind the island. This was corrected in the next class (Kittyhawk) with the port elevator moved aft of catapult four and elevator two moved to forward of the island. This change made a vast change in aircraft movement and launch cycles.
16:12 it makes sense from a older generation that they wanted to keep aircraft below until ready for launch and the elevators be closer to the catapults for quicker launches make sense in a basic way with no regard to how aircraft movement is carried out in reality.
29:37 the Brit's have no right to bash the USN for sinking the Saratoga at Bikini atoll
39:06 with just two carriers they have the ability to be launching strikes 24 hours a day for two to three weeks with comsumables the only limiting factor.

[Bpilot]

I was deployed aboard USS Kitty Hawk, the last of the oil-fired CVs. She is in the process of being “dismantled” ( scrapped ) in Texas. We never had any fresh water issues, but the air conditioning kinda sucked while we were in the Persian Gulf summer of 99’. The Kitty Hawk did have armor on the hangar deck and other vulnerable areas. I think the most notable thing about all US carriers from Forrestal on was their ability to be modified to operate state-of-art aircraft. Midway-class was not fitted to operate the F-14, however, the Franklin D. Roosevelt was used to conduct carrier suitability trials for the F-111B, which proved too heavy for Naval service. The TFX program along with the Knox-class FFs (DEs originally) and the M-16A1 service rifle were among SECDEF McNamara’s boondoggles in the interest of “efficiency”. I hope you do some videos on the old 1052s and the “Hawk” ( aka “Battlehawk”). 92-95 and 98-00’ HS-4/HS-14(CVW-15/CVW-5).

[jimbrown]

I flew off CV-60 USS Saratoga over 2 deployments in the early 90’s. Don’t remember her ever using the port side elevator.

[tylerbrandon]

I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Admiral Flatley, who flew the C-130 trials off Forrestal, when he was a guest lecturer at my NROTC in college.

[jimbrown]

Fun fact, CV-60 USS Saratoga burned 1 gallon of DFM (diesel fuel marine) per foot at 30 knots according to an engineering officer I had dinner with one evening in the wardroom.

[ramal]

The failure of CVA-58 leads to these class of carriers, with the technology available they made the best of the design as possible in the late 50s, the lessons of the design would also be applied to the more advanced Kitty Hawk class and eventually the nuclear Enterprise.

[donaldsmith]

I served on both the USS Saratoga CVA60 and the USS Ranger CVA61 with the Vigi squadron. The air wing compliment on both was round 90 aircraft in the early 1970's. I saw only one major difference in the 2 ship, the number of fire doors on the hanger deck. There was not a 10 meter difference in the flight deck width. The idea of a retractable island on the United States was a fools errand. More then half of the island is used for air wing operation that need to see the deck so putting it down would not happen. The design of the Kitty Hawk class was incorporating what was learned with the Forrestal class in a new ship class of a similar size.

[phil_nebula]

If I had to redesign the Forrestal-class, 10:56 to 17:33, I'd move the island back a bit and remove 2 of the four elevators one in the port side and one in the rear starboard side of the island.

[TheDoctorMonkey]

29:47 [looks at British record on this] I think it might be safer to say that there are few acts of cultural and historical vandalism OUTSIDE THE UK

[williamlloyd]

Great briefing.
PS — when you moved to the country house you should have left the squeaky chair in the bin.

[lindsaybaker]

The USN should have developed a conventionally powered carrier successor to the Forrestals and Kitty Hawks.

[PopeMetallicus]

I would argue that ENTERPRISE was the Dreadnought moment. the nuclear powerplant was what really birthed the modern carrier

[FrankBarnwell-ximy]

A guy I went to "A" school with a sailor who was on Forrestal. His home 4 years. They went a long way. The variety of planes the supported was a larger story. 50s to fa-18, very near f35

[c.a.mcdivitt]

Hope you get to feeling better soon!

Hum- honestly, if the USN was using Hercules for COD, the only ones who would probably be interested in matching it were Russia and the UK. Russia would likely either (a) try to land a An-12 on a modified cargo ship (and hide the fact they tried to land one on a Kiev and stacked it into the sea) or (b) make a big propaganda stink about how the US sailors were endangering the lives of themselves and their allies by landing too big an aircraft on a carrier, or (c) both.

The UK would probably wander off and do its own thing.

[paulamos]

BZ. Great introduction in preparation for the key ship episode

[andrewcox]

My first thought is what use would an AC130 be in a naval battle. Definitely a good way to deal with fast attack boats 😅