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Greetings All,
Ron's post about DARPA's launch & recovery Gremlin Drone system got me thinking about some of those old composite aircraft designs. = Attempts at designing and building REAL Flying Aircraft Carriers & their Parasite Fighters. A couple that actually worked! . . . the rest, Not So Much. BUT all pretty darn interesting if ya like military X-Projects!?
AirVectors has a pretty good page full of info and images. =
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Of all the pages covering this topic on the web I thought it rather odd that they all seemed to skip over one of my favorite proposed US designs. = The Convair XAB-1 nuclear powered bomber with its two tail mounted parasite fighters. (Try and tell me THAT wouldn't have made for a FUN ride! LOL) In fact, one of the best pages I found on the XAB-1 was a page focused on Old Model Kits! --- Still, the info and images are pretty darn good, and the model kit info is darn interesting as well. =
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As to the Fictional Airborne Aircraft Carriers, Wiki has a pretty good list, but I seem to recall at least a couple of others from the old Pulp and Classic SF days that didn't make their list and I can't seem to pull out of the old grey-matter. Sorry. But, Hey! at least they all seemed to work better than the real prototypes! LOL
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Keep It FUN!
Dan G

Yeah, LOL, but I'm sure that if ya never really actually ~ put into words ~ what powers the thing folks won't bother themselves doing the work of researching the true specks. (Unbless one of us old farts goes and pops their bubbles. <evil grin>.) --- That pic I added to your Drone string was of the SHIELD Helicarrier from The Avengers. Notice how nobody seems to bother questioning its power source? = It must be Tekno-Magik, right? Surely NOBODY would need to use something as dangerous as NUCLEAR REACTORS to keep something that huge airborne 24/7, right? LOL . . . But WAY BACK In The Day I liked the Super Spy vs Super Spy (no spandex required! LOL) action of SHIELD with my old pal Sgt Fury become head of the organization. Naturally, us kids we wanted to know/ see EVERYTHING about his and other comic book super tech we could find, and the writers were more often than not happy to provide! ("Oh! So THAT's where the super-duper bunker/prison is hidden! UNDER The Reactor!!!" LOL) I seem to recall a drawing of SHIELD's city base and a flying ship both being nuclear powered. = Of Course it was NUCLEAR POWERED, ya just didn't question it. = Nuclear Power WAS our Tekno-Magik! . . . Today, I reckon, most folks would rather just believe in the "Magik" and feel better not knowing about the "Tekno" bits. . . . And They call themselves, "GEEKS"??? LOL?

Keep It FUN!
Dan G

Gotta a couple of more additions.
The Douglas 1186c was a US Navy parasite NUCLEAR POWERED (evil grin) Long Range Special Attack composite aircraft design from 1948. The parasite would guide and drop this monster (being nuclear powered it could hang around for weeks waiting for The Word) then detach and run like hell before the blast or intercept fighters could catch it. --- Pretty interesting history behind this Atomic Age Big Bird but, once again, about the best images and info come from modeler pages. SHARKIT does a very nice one, and I've even seen paper models online. Still, CMIG has a good short article. =??

From the AH/SF novella MISSILE GAP by C Stross I reckon a Russian Ekranoplan could qualify as a Fictional "Flying" Aircraft Carrier. --- This EnglishRussia site tries to make it seem like a Soviet project that almost got off the ground, but its all just typical Ivan BS Hype. Still, some GREAT renderings. =??

Keep It FUN!
Dan G

Yeah, that's one of the many reasons I really like Atomic Age Military X-Projects. = So many REALLY incredible equipment designs came out for all branches of the service. Granted, like these that never left the drawing board (the 1186c purely due to politics!), many made it to the prototype stage simply because they didn't have computers to tell them such&such would never work. So once they got past the slide-rules and "windtunnel models" the only way to find out for sure was to build it. Some worked. Some . . . Not So Much. Still, = TONS of fuel for my warped AH/SF-F greymatter! --- I just wish that there was more reliable sources for some of these projects than what you can find online. Though no little of intel on many are (believe-it-or-not) still not available to the public for a host of odd reasons.

BTW -- Did ya look into the USS UNITED STATES CVA-58 ("A" for Atomic or Attack or both???) Super Carrier that the 1186C was designed for? = Pretty Darn Interesting! (Damn jealous interfering FlyBoys anyway! = POLITICS!) Wiki and NavSource Online are both good. But again a modelers page gives a better idea of the finished ship and even includes 1186Cs on his flightdeck!?

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Keep It FUN!
Dan G