The Ranger CV

[JMoltzer]

According to Jane's Fighting Ships, the Ranger has a normal capacity of 72 aircraft but "81 are usually carried." Jane's states the carrier's aircraft complement consists of four squadrons of "bomber-fighters," the ship was normally used as a transport in which case 81 could be carried. And I've read as many as 96 were cramed on her deck once.

This is not the same as opperationalal capacity. Apparently by the VAS stats the Ranger could launch and recover 96 aircraft? Google a picture of the Ranger... those 96 aircraft were almost entirely cramed on the top deck as cargo, often times without propellers.

She also seems out of place as a raid level ship with a capacity of 12 flights, when the Lexington & Yorktown also both 12 are rated as Battle.

 

[DM]

I don't have the stats to hand, but if the listed capacity is 12 flights thats about 72 aircraft (a "flight"equates roughly to 6 planes)

 

[Joe_Dracos]

A flight should actually be 4 planes (two lead pilots with a wingman each), with a squadron having 4 flights (16 planes total)...

 

[JMoltzer]

yes a flight is 3-6 aircraft, but the most common useage and especially among navy flights is 4. And a squadron is 12.

What I was going to point out was that yes the Ranger carried as many as 90 aircraft, but this was when it was used as a ferry and not as an opperational carrier. If it was outfited for operations it only carried 4 fighter/bomber squadrons (and this was back when it still used bi-planes), or 12 flights.. as you have, but if thats true for the Ranger, then many ships need to be revisited. Even if we divided by 6, the math still is differnt from the stats in VAS and OOB. In fact the only combat useage I found with the numbers of aricraft carried list was 28. 20 Dauntlasses and 8 Wildcats. why so little, because when not used as a cargo ship and used to actually do its job as an aircraft carrier it needed to have space to run operations in the hanger and on the deck as well as room below for all the ammo and fuel.

When you start looking at these numbers aircraft carriers start to actually be powerful and could actually acomplish something. Like sink a capital ship in VAS. It would also require re-priotitizing them to match their new power. But in that same token I think planes in gerneal are overpriced and that you should get about twice what you get under the current system... currently you get more planes for the price if you buy carriers than if you launched them from land based, plus they can reload... carriers are a bargin! And so few planes, at least in my games has usually

Class - aircraft - Flights
Casablanca - 28 - 7
Long Island - 21 - 5
Bogue - 24 - 6
Sangamon - 32 - 8
Independance - 45? - 11
Ranger - 28 (90 as cargo) - 7
Wasp - 72 - 18 (CV-7 since the latter Wasp was an Essex class)
Yorktown - 90 - 22 (CV-5 since the latter Yorktown was an Essex class)
Lexington - 91 - 22 (CV-2 since the latter Lexington was an Essex class)
Essex - 90 to 110 - 22 to 27 (I'd go 25)

I would reprioritize them as so...
Skirmish: Long Island and Bogue
Raid: Casablanca, Sagamon, & Ranger
Battle: Independance
War: Wasp, Yorktown, Lexington & Essex