TR-5B Tragflugelboot

[Foxbat]

I thought this might be of interest to anybody considering writing any alternate history in the period around WW2.

This radical design of armed hydrofoil torpedo boat was due to go into construction in early 1945 but never saw the light of day.

TR-5B Tragflügelboot

 

[BigBadBob141]

What about plans to build a giant aircraft carrier out of ice.
The hull would be made of frozen water mixed with wood pulp.
A large freezer plant with cooler pipes embedded in the hull would keep it frozen.
And the wood pulp would act as insulation as well as adding strength.
As the hull would be at least six feet thick it would impervious to torpedoes.
This would have been perfect to plug the mid-atlantic gap.

 

[Pyan]

What about plans to build a giant aircraft carrier out of ice....This would have been perfect to plug the mid-atlantic gap.

Earlier still, (1934) there was a well-advanced plan to build a series of floating aerodromes across the Atlantic - sadly, the advances in aircraft endurance made it obsolete, but it would certainly added ...interest to a transatlantic flight. Note that the US Government were investing at least $1.5m in the plan, the equivalent of over $28m today...

FLOATING AIRPORTS on LINK CONTINENTS - Modern Mechanix (Feb, 1934)