Looks nice, although...

Yorktown-class had metal deck and catapults?

Early Wildcats were catapult launchable?

They did have catapults, but they were not steam. don't think that they used them much operationally.
2 × flight deck hydraulic catapults
1 × hangar deck hydraulic catapult

"In drawing up the preliminary design for USS Essex (CV-9), particular attention was directed at the size of both her flight and hangar decks. Aircraft design had come a long way from the comparatively light planes used in carriers during the 1930s. Flight decks now required more takeoff space for the heavier fighters and bombers being developed. Most of the first-line carriers of the pre-war years were equipped with flush deck catapults, but owing to the speed and size of these ships very little catapulting was done?except for experimental purposes.

With the advent of war, airplane weights began to go up as armor and armament got heavier; crew size aboard the planes also increased. By the war?s end in 1945, catapult launchings would become more common under these circumstances with some carrier commanding officers reporting that as much as 40% of launchings were effected by the ships? catapults."

I have seen photos of the Lexington class were they used the catapults for launching seaplanes and such

The USN didn't have steal flight decks until the Midways came on line claiming that the wood was more easy to repair then steal

Its beta. Its simply a test dataini to get in the water. The correct era setup will be installed. Nice work Hinch.

Oh yeah forgot to say that,, looks great! Hinch! hopfuly Rising sun never scraps there Big-E like the USN did :-(

Like I say............ tales of the future. Not written in stone.


Colmack,

I was reading about Enterprise's demise. Complete cock-up. You have a number of rebuilt Essexes preserved, but yet this carrier that went through WWII gets the axe?

Yes they should of saved her, I think it would have been like if they scraped Constitution. Bull Halsey gave it everything he had to save her, kids all around sent in all of there piggy bank's pennies but there were so many ex WWII ships going to the cutters that she just got caught up in the wash you know you cant save um all but "historic landmarks" should never be messed with, there is another Enterprise getting ready to start her "golden years" I don't think she will ever see the cutters but don't think she will be made into a museum either because of her propulsion system, probably suffer the same fate as her half sister CV-66 America after the EPA is satisfied.

Hinch,

This is a tough audience. Almost any story we want to tell, there will be someone as or more knowledgeable than we are.

Another exceptional ship...maybe the best yet...that or the Prince of Wales. I look forward to putting it to sea.

Looks good Hinch - poly count looks pretty spot-on

It must be a massive task to convert the SF:P1 engine into a WW2 sim - it's a testament to it's flexibility that such a project can even be undertaken!

I still think that the boat pictured in this thread is of the "Yorktown" class and not the "Essex" class - but I'm definitely not an expert on naval vessels.

It struck me as odd that Wildcats would be on the cats in the first image, but considering that SF:P1 would be natively instructing all aircraft to attach to the catapults, it makes sense.

No457_Squog,

You're right, she's a Yorktown. The planes are just there because something has to be for testing purposes (making sure shadows don't get screwed up, etc.).

Cheers,
Hinch