What do you think about that british project in WW2 to build an unsinkable giant aircraft carrier made of strengthened ice? Was it really realistic, and would possibly have proven effective....?
this is joke post yes? like the plan to employ icebergs to sink the german navy deployed in the mid atlantic. FNG
It depends. Surely it would have been slow and clumsy and could be only in one place at one time. Same money used to regular carriers would have given many more flattops, with maybe more aircrafts than Habakuk. But there was one "job" that Habakuk could have done better than dozen Essex-class carriers: Launching medium or even heavy bombers.
Type Habbakak or Pykrete into Google and see for yourself. Also try this link http://www.phpbbplanet.com/forum/viewto ... ipprojects
okay, it's big, very slow, very unmanoeuvrable and made of ice. you can only deploy it in the artic area (caue it would melt in the med ) it could come in handy to protect the northern convoys towards Russia against mass air attacks of the Germans
Nope - made of Pykrete. In a demonstration, somebody (was it Churchill?) was served a bown of hot soup in a Pykrete bowl (it did not melt). Very big, yes. Very slow, yes (well, I would assume so). But, the point is that Pykrete was very tough and did not melt.
The story goes Mountbatten came to visit Churchill one day and on hearing he was in the bath said 'good thats where i want him' burst in to the bathroom and threw a lump of Pykrete into Churchills bath and it just sat there without melting with Churchill looking at it. Another story says that in a joint UK/US meeting someone fired a bullet at a lump of it and it bounced off going through the trouser leg of US Fleet Admiral King - there are some that may have wished it went a few inches closer given the animosity at the time (and still existing today) over Admiral king's policies regarding convoy. 6-8 kts seems to be the most often quoted spped. There is a story using an actual Habbakuk here - they are hightailing it out of the Persian Gulf due to a mysterious bug that is feeding on the pykrete. http://p216.ezboard.com/fwarships1discussionboardsfrm6 Look for CV Habbakuk
not melting?? i find tht hard to believe. it is ice combined with woodpulp. ice melts. i can assume that it will melt very very slowly but not melting at all?
A small prototype was built. Apparently it lasted for months even after the cooling system was turned off in a +0 degrees climate.
http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Alberta/habbakuk.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habbakuk http://www.stormy.ca/marine/habbakuk.html http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/uofa ... ssue=22530 http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7 ... island.php http://www.combinedops.com/Pykrete.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete Like i've said on the Warship Project board, the ready availability of US built CVE's probably did the project in.
It would have been a useful piece of kit to have started the war with. However in wartime it was overtaken by developements. Still you have to wonder whether the idea would be useful for building mega freighters?
