Woah

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch) 11/18/2015 at 17:42 • Filed to: shiplopnik

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You know those really huge and impressive Iowa class battleships?

Did you know we almost built its bigger brother? I didn’t. Dag yo, thats a big ship. 12(!) 16 inch guns that lob 2700 lbs armor piercing shells nearly 23 miles. Its armor was designed to survive direct hits from these shells, btw.

At 921 feet long it would have been 82 feet longer than the largest battelship ever, the Yamato. It was 121 feet wide, or as wide as this is long...

TheHondaBro > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 17:48

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The captain must be compensating for something.

EL_ULY > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 17:52

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Lead image = New wallpaper!

HammerheadFistpunch > EL_ULY 11/18/2015 at 17:53

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its not a bad image.

T5Killer > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 17:54

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The Montana class design is impressive. Shame they were never laid down.

Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 17:55

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Yamato and Bismarck. So cool when I first read about them.

HammerheadFistpunch > T5Killer 11/18/2015 at 17:59

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Its a shame only inasmuch as it would have been cool to geek out over. The Navy knew then that the battleship concept was done, and that the future was in carriers. Still, just think about the kinetic energy of 12 2700 lb plated projectiles arcing in from over the horizon and landing on a shore emplacement. That’s 32,400 lbs traveling at probably close to 2x the speed of sound. That’s a lot of power.

MM54 > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 17:59

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That first picture was my wallpaper for a while.

I’d love to see these battleships in person some day - I suspect there’s really no other way to grasp the scale. Problematically, I live nowhere near the ocean.

SVTyler > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 17:59

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What’s crazy is that even though the Montana-class was almost 100ft longer than Yamato, it actually displaced less tonnage under full load (something like 73k vs 72.5k tons). Really gives you perspective on how gigantic some of the WWII battleships really were.

HammerheadFistpunch > MM54 11/18/2015 at 18:00

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I got to see one once...dang. they are large.

HammerheadFistpunch > SVTyler 11/18/2015 at 18:01

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yeah 72000 tons fully laden displacement vs 73500. 72000 lbs is a lot to think about but when its tons? crap. Then think that the Nimitz class is ~104,000 tons.

HammerheadFistpunch > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 11/18/2015 at 18:02

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They are fun to geek out over...but part of me is glad we aren’t building things like this anymore, I’m not sure why.

JR1 > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 18:06

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So sad these kick ass battleships were retired. I was aware of the Montana class. In classic American ideology bigger is better

HammerheadFistpunch > JR1 11/18/2015 at 18:13

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As I was saying to T5killer, its only sad from a geek out perspective, its really a good thing we aren’t perusing the battleship anymore.

chaozbandit > HammerheadFistpunch 11/18/2015 at 18:35

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Ah yes, that was a great era for naval warfare. Had the Yamato survived long enough and not gotten bum-rushed by the US, Japan would have laid down the Super Yamato, which was on par in size and firepower with the Montanna class (US), H class (Germany), and Lion class (UK).

A-150 series super yamatos were penned with 20in guns, max speed of 30 knts, and a displacement of 82,000 tonnes. Armour was designed (and ballistically tested) for 20in rounds weighting over 4,000 lbs. But unfortunately, by the time the designs were finalized, Japan was very short on resources and more focused on keeping the sole Yamato class ship afloat.

Actually, both the Iowa and Yamato are in World of Warships in case you wanted to give them a go, though they are very end game to get to. Definitely worth it - the Yamato is my favourite battleship, just slightly eeking out the Kongo.

http://www.battleshipyamato.info/history.html

The Soviets also had a thing or two going for them with the Tirpitz and the lot, but Britain got scared and bombed the heck out of their dry docks essentially ending that run at two ships.

chaozbandit > MM54 11/18/2015 at 18:37

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You should fly out to the floating museums someday! The US Govt mandated that all surviving BBs are kept in as close to battle-ready condition, just in case, so nearly everything is intact. They are indeed rare to come across, but the next best thing would be to visit an aircraft carrier; IIRC the Intrepid is serving as a Museum in New York!

MM54 > chaozbandit 11/18/2015 at 19:04

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I’ll definitely have to do that some time!

T5Killer > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 11/18/2015 at 19:04

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Never been a huge Yamato fan. Maybe to me bigger is better has limits. I liked the Bismarck she was the 1st ship model I built when I was a kid. I wish I still had that model it had an electric motor and a one piece hull so she floated!

SVTyler > HammerheadFistpunch 11/19/2015 at 01:59

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What really contextualizes it all is comparing the size of different components: our boat has a 14-inch prop I could pick up with one hand, while the Nimitz has two 25- foot props each weighing 66,000lbs. The engineering going into projects like carriers is just mind-boggling.

Jcarr > HammerheadFistpunch 11/19/2015 at 17:02

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What could have been. Did you know the first 2 Montana class boats (Illinois and Kentucky) had their orders changed to become 2 more Iowa class?

Both ended up being scrapped before completion. The Kentucky’s bow was actually grafted on to the Wisconsin after she collided with the destroyer Eaton.

HammerheadFistpunch > Jcarr 11/19/2015 at 17:07

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interesting, I love hearing about these “bastard children” machines. The SR-71 we have on display at Hill AFB, for example, was actually nicknamed “the bastard” because it was pieced together from a wreck of the first YF-12A (S/N 60-6934) and a functional engineering mockup of an SR-71A forward fuselage built for static testing. Its the only “SR-71C” model made.

Jcarr > HammerheadFistpunch 11/19/2015 at 17:09

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The U.S. military inventory is just one giant pick and pull.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > HammerheadFistpunch 11/19/2015 at 17:46

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You were geeking on torque versus horsepower in another post. Those shells coming in would have had some serious inertia , and I’d not want to be the one on the beach wearing the catcher’s mitt.

HammerheadFistpunch > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 11/19/2015 at 17:56

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yeah my guesstimate was something like 2,730 megajoules of Kinetic energy. That’s a lot.