From D K Brown’s ‘Rebuilding the RN’ Page 41

In November 1945 the Deputy Controller indicated that nine fleet aircraft carriers would be needed in 1950, of which three would be the Ark Royal class (the contract for the original Eagle had not then been cancelled), the other six being the Illustrious and her five contemporaries. Anything less than a full reconstruction was not recommended. The cost of reconstruction was said to be £2.5 million compared with £7 million for a new aircraft carrier. Nevertheless, the Fifth Sea Lord, who was responsible for aircraft in the fleet, considered it was not worthwhile modernising Illustrious, the money saved being better out towards the cost of a new ship. In any case there was now no money for the project so the subject was deferred for 6 months.

I’m not sure how close this possible rebuild was compared to the one that ended up being planned and carried out on Victorious.

It would almost certainly have made no difference to the eventual number of Harrier operators, those countries that gradually withdrew from the carrier game over time did so through their own decision based largely on cost and would have made the same decisions whether they were operating light fleet carriers or escort carriers, both types would have come to ten ends of their viable lives at about the same time and potential replacements would still have cost the same as they would have done in the real world.

Thats what i thought at first but then I wondered if the various countries that operated the British CVL’s operated the US CVL’s as helicopter carriers, would they be withdrawn from service at the same time as their British built CVL’s were historically.

If one or more are still operating them at the time Spain proves it can operate Harriers from Dedalo or even becomes the first to try, do they look at getting back into fixed wing naval aviation?

Some replies on warships1

http://warships1discussionboards.yuku.com/topic/4510

The problem with that is that the longer range standoff missiles had sufficient range to be launched from relative safety. It is very likely of course that the SSBNs would still have been bought, but a Skybolt or similar missile might have allowed the RAF to share the deterrent role.

Interesting you should bring that up, take a look at the wiki article for Chevaline, admitedly its wiki but its quite interesting regarding the redice range of Chevaline Polaris over the standard Polaris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevaline

From what i’ve read in various places, Moscow was the target and the range requirement seems to have been based on launching from friendly airspace.

Got some info on the original X.12

OR.1182 – 1,000nm range, Mach 3 performance at high altitude, and high-speed (mach 2) terrain following for the last 100nm to be in service by 1966.

Bristol X.12 (also known as Pandora) – This low-level stand off bomb had a slim 50ft (15.2m) long fuselage of just 3ft 2” (98cm) in diameter together with small delta wings 15ft (4.6m) long and 6ft (1.8m) span. The latter, and a semi-integrated BS.10-13 ramjet optimised for Mach 2.5, were mounted around the rear fuselage; a 28ft (8.5m) mid-fuselage section housed the fuel and the nose contained the warhead and guidance (Forward Looking radar from TSR.2). At 20,000lb (9,072kg) weight, X-12’s range would have been at least 1,000nm (1,852km); maximum ceiling was expected to be 70,000ft to 76,000ft (21,336m to 23,165m) and initially, a cruising speed of mach 4 had been planned. Projected in-service date was 1966.

Avro W.140 – This had a slim body 37ft 3in (11.35m) long with a 6ft 6in (1.98m) span delta wing, a Rolls Royce RB.153-17 jet and all-moving elevons for control aft of the wing. Launch weight would be 8,550lb (3,878kg). If the weapon was launched at mach 0.84 and 45,000ft (13,716m), a range of 1,550nm (2,871km) was possible but this fell to 950nm (1,759km) if the missile flew the last 100nm (185km) at Mach 1.5 at sea level; W.140 would cruise at Mach 3 at 70,000ft (21,336m).

Was a turbofan powered version ever considered before Shorts came up with the SC.5/45 proposal – Belfast fuselage (more or less) with C-141 wings?