Many netizens asked, why can aircraft carriers with a displacement of about 30,000 tons during World War II carry 90~100 carrier-based aircraft, but modern aircraft carriers have much less aircraft? For example, the world's largest "Ford" class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has a displacement of up to 110,000 tons and only carries more than 80 carrier-based aircraft. In addition, the mainland's "Shandong" aircraft carrier has a displacement of more than 60,000 tons, and under normal circumstances, it can only carry more than 40 carrier-based aircraft. Britain's "Queen Elizabeth" class aircraft carrier has a displacement of 65,000 tons, and the carrier-based aircraft carrying capacity is about 40. Why is that?
American "Nimitz" class aircraft carrier hangar
The number of carrier-based aircraft carried by an aircraft carrier depends first of all on the size of the hangar, which is a place to accommodate and overhaul carrier-based aircraft. Modern aircraft carriers only have one hangar, and many aircraft carriers during World War II used double-decker hangars (such as Japanese aircraft carriers). Why don't aircraft carriers now use double-decker hangars? Because the height of the hangar does not allow. Like the American Nimitz-class aircraft carrier with a displacement of 100,000 tons, the hangar height is 8 meters, and the height of the maintenance room is 11 meters. If you add a hangar, the height of the hull will increase by 11 meters, and seaworthiness and stability will be a problem. In order to ensure seaworthiness and stability, the width and length of the aircraft carrier must be increased, and the overall tonnage will increase a lot, and a large increase in tonnage will bring a series of new problems.
World War II American aircraft carrier hangars
In contrast, the aircraft carrier designed with a double-decker hangar during World War II has a single-deck hangar height of only 4 meters, and a double-decker hangar is only 8 meters. Some netizens may want to ask, during World War II, the US aircraft carrier was also a single-story hangar, why can it also carry nearly 100 fighters? That's because the height of the single-story hangar of the US aircraft carrier is much higher, for example, the height of the hangar of the "Yorktown" class is 5.3 meters, and the US aircraft carrier hangs spare fighters on the top of the hangar - some fighters are hung against the top of the hangar, so the actual carrying capacity is also a lot.
Secondly, the types of hangars are also different, most of the aircraft carriers during World War II were open hangars, only a few were closed hangars (the number of aircraft carried is also small), and modern aircraft carriers are all closed hangars. The space of a closed hangar is much smaller than that of an open hangar, so the number of carrier-based aircraft on board is much smaller. The advantages of an open hangar are good ventilation, good damage control, a blast wave from an explosion if a bomb hits the hangar, and a lighter structure. The advantage of an enclosed hangar is that it is highly defensive, has a robust structure, and has nuclear, biological and chemical protection. Judging from the development trend, after World War II, the hangars of both aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships are closed hangar designs, so the number of carrier-based aircraft of modern aircraft carriers is much less under the same tonnage.
Hangar of the French "Charles de Gaulle" class aircraft carrier
This was followed by a sharp increase in the size of carrier-based aircraft, which limited the number of hangar loads. Take the famous Japanese "Zero" carrier-based fighter during World War II as an example, its length is 9 meters, 3.5 meters high, wingspan is 12 meters, and the maximum take-off weight is only about 2.7 tons, compared with the US Navy F/A-18 "Super Hornet" combat attack aircraft is 18.3 meters long, 4.9 meters high, wingspan 13.6 meters, and the maximum take-off weight is about 29 tons. The parameters of the fourth-generation F-35C fighter are also looked at, its length is 15.6 meters, the height is 4.6 meters, the wingspan is 13.3 meters, and the maximum take-off weight reaches 32 tons.
From the comparison of the above data, it can be seen that the size of modern fighters is much larger, and at the same time has a maximum take-off weight of more than 10 times. An F/A-18 or F-35C takes up several times more space than a "zero" aircraft, and if it is a larger AWACS aircraft, it will take up more space.
The Japanese aircraft carrier "Kaga" in World War II
In addition, modern aircraft carriers are equipped with advanced electronic equipment and sophisticated command and control systems, which also require a lot of space, while aircraft carriers during World War II had very rudimentary or even non-existent equipment. Therefore, on the whole, under the same tonnage conditions, the number of carrier-based aircraft carried by modern aircraft carriers is much smaller than that of aircraft carriers during World War II, and modern aircraft carriers of 30,000 tons generally carry up and down 20 carrier-based aircraft.