From: Onno Meyer > So are there reasons why this shouldn't work? And if the carrier works, > how about a heli-battleship?
Well, you have the problem of the fan rules being a gross approximation. A ducted fan produces 18N thrust per kW, implying that air is being accelerated from about 0 to 100 m/s. Air density ranges from about 0.6 to 1.2 kg/m^3 over the appropriate altitude range for a helicarrier, we'll assume we can operate at high altitude with no excess lift, so air flow rate at top altitude is 60 kg/m^2/s and thrust is 6,000N/m^2 or .06 bar. A 20,000 ton ship then needs 180,000,000N lift, meaning 30,000m^2 (260,000 sf) fan area. With 6 fans, each one has a diameter of 240 feet; a row of 3 on each side means you have something 720' long and 480' wide, plus the actual width of the flight deck. That's shorter than a Nimitz, but much much wider. Also, the flight deck is going to be suffering from crosswinds of up to 200 mph, which is going to make takeoffs rather challenging.
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