Newsgroups: sci.military
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbfsb!cbnewsc!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: vrdxhq!vrdxhq.verdix.com!bsmart@uunet.UU.NET (Bob Smart)
Subject: Re: Left-handed carriers
Organization: Verdix Corporation, Chantilly,  VA
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 90 01:48:23 GMT
Approved: military@att.att.com
Message-ID: <1990Nov29.014823.25168@cbnews.att.com>
References: <1990Nov15.013451.1767@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Lines: 42



From: vrdxhq!vrdxhq.verdix.com!bsmart@uunet.UU.NET (Bob Smart)

in article <1990Nov15.013451.1767@cbnews.att.com>, lynch@arcadien.rice.edu (Robert Preston Lynch) says:
> 
> Did anybody, anywhere, ever build a left-handed aircraft carrier?
> 
> Robert Lynch           lynch@rice.edu
> ===========================================================
> 
> [mod.note:  Yes, the Japanese Akagi had a port-side island.  This was
> added during a reconstruction, the original having no island, and
> apparently the port side was the only place with room to spare.  The
> Hiryu also had a port-side island, though her sister-ship, Soryu,
> was completed first, and with the island to starboard. 
> 	Of course, some carriers, especially from WWII and previously,
> had no islands at all. - Bill ]

The Japanese had 2 'Left handed' carriers as noted above. But I believe
that is was done intentionally with the intention of having two carrier
task groups ( not known by that name at the time :-)). The intention
was to run one clockwise airfield pattern and one counterclockwise to`
enable both carriers to operate simultaneous operations and stay close
together for protection. I do not believe the theory worked out well 
because the Shokaku and Zuikaku pair that was built later had conventional
right islands. I believe the book AIRCRAFT CARRIERS by Polmar ( It has
been a few years since I saw it) It is a very large thick book and covers
carrier development up to the USS Kennedy very well. It includes information
and photos on the British 'flexible deck' ( no landing gear just a well
padded landing area, use a dolly for launches) and the trials using a
C-130 on the Forrestal class. I also found some information on Japanese
carrier operations at the US Navy Operational Archives at the Washington
Navy Yard. There were several studies done just after the war on operational
issues such as flight ops, damage control, and air group composition.
I spent several days working on a comparison of US Japanese and British
carrier theories and how it affected the ships they built for an under-
graduate paper. I just wish I had the time to do that kind of stuff now :-)

Bob Smart (bsmart@verdix.com)