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Project 72 Aircraft Carrier

Project 72 was developed in 1944-45 and most sources cite at least two versions of this project. One, whose image is given here, with a displacement and dimensions roughly equivalent to the British "Illastries" and a second, much larger, with an air group of about 62 aircraft and a displacement of more than 30,000 tons. The lighter version had 8 paired 130mm universal guns, 8 paired anti-aircraft guns 85mm and 10 paired 37mm rifles.

The project of a heavy aircraft carrier was developed by TsKB-17 in the middle of the war, taking into account the performance characteristics of the serial front-line cars of 1943 for the fighter and foreign analogues for the deck torpedo bomber. In the role of a fighter, a modification of the Yak-9K was planned, and the ship torpedo boat PT-M71 was to be designed by Tupolev Design Bureau. The two-tier hangar would allow 62 aircraft to be placed on the aircraft carrier.

Practically all the development of Soviet aircraft carriers of the prewar and military years did not leave the pre-design stage and therefore it is very difficult to tell about them in detail. On September 7, 1937, pursuant to the decision of the Defense Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of August 13/15, 1937, No. 87, the People's Commissar for Defense of the USSR, K. Voroshilov, sent a report to the Central Committee of the CPSU(B), I.V.Stalin and the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, VM Molotov, on the question of the revised plan for the construction of naval ships of the Red Army Naval Forces.

In this document, in particular, the increase in the total tonnage of ships of the main classes in comparison with previous plans was motivated by the introduction of heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers into the program of construction. In total it was planned to build two aircraft carriers - for the Northern and Pacific fleets. The laying of the first was planned in 1941, the second in 1942, with the comissioning ["surrender"] of these ships in the Fourth Five-Year Plan. The program of military shipbuilding was not approved for the third five-year plan.

On June 27, 1938 the Shipbuilding Administration of the RKKF was sent tactical and technical tasks (TTZ) for the design of this ship. In October of the same year, the TTZ was examined at the Main Marine Headquarters of the RKKF, and, with minor comments, approved it, ordered to prepare it in the form of an assignment for the People's Commissariat of the Shipbuilding Industry (NKSP) to create a pre-design project.

In the list of design works of the NSSP for 1939 this task was no longer included, and it was included in the order of industry approved on November 29, 1940. But already in January 1940 it turned out that the NSCP unilaterally did not accept eleven points of the new order, including the assignment for pre-design aircraft carrier design. Since the order contained issues that were more topical than the aircraft carrier, the question about him was not raised in the government.

During the war years, the Naval Academy conducted a research work on the theme "Trends in the development of a military ship," in which in 1943 a predesign aircraft carrier project was developed using the existing developments in Project 71, as well as materials from a group of specialists who had been before the war working on the German aircraft carrier "Graf Zeppelin".

The completion of this research work in 1944 coincided with the government's decision to design a new generation of warships, taking into account the experience of the Second World War. In development of this resolution, in January 1945, on the orders of the People's Commissar of the Navy, a number of commissions were set up with the task of preparing proposals for selecting the types of warships, including aircraft carriers, necessary.

With a standard displacement of 23,700 and a full displacement of 28,800 tons, this ship was to have a length along the waterline 224, a width of 27.9, a height of 20.9, a draft at a standard displacement of 7.23 and a full displacement of 8.45 meters. The four main Turbo-gear unit with a capacity of 36,000 liters. Operating from eight boilers with a capacity of 73 tons per hour, would provide the aircraft carrier a full speed of 30 knots and a cruising range of 18-knot travel of 10,000 miles. Provided reservation: board-90 mm, 30-mm flight and 55-mm hangar deck. On the ship it was planned to install only anti-aircraft guns.

Eight paired 130-mm multi-purpose turret artillery systems B-2-U with two sets of fire control devices (SAM) "Smena" which were designed in the pre-war years for the destroyers of Project 35 and the leaders of Project 40. However, their development at that time did not come out of the design stage and was subsequently abandoned by them.

Better was the case with eight paired 85-mm turret artillery mounts 92-K with four sets of PUS "Soyuz". The artillery guns and fire control devices themselves were already produced serially, and a two-turret emplacement was prepared for testing. Subsequently, this weapon system was installed on the destroyers of Z0K and 30bis.

In addition, the aircraft carrier was supposed to deliver twelve paired 37-mm B-11 anti-aircraft guns and twenty-four new 23-mm twin anti-aircraft guns. The latter were only being developed, but then 25mm guns were used on the basis of the 84-KM artillery system.

The basis of the aircraft carrier's armament was 30 aircraft. To ensure their flights, catapults were provided, air finishers, rollers, special landing lights, etc. The issues of storing aviation fuel and its supply to aircraft were especially studied. Thus, the gas storage was separated from adjacent premises by special flooded cofferdams. Aviation fuel in tanks was under pressure in an inert gas environment, and the gasoline pipelines themselves passed through a pipe filled with the same gas.

The crew of the ship numbered up to 2000 people.

The special commission, which worked in the beginning of 1945 and developed the requirements for aircraft carriers, came to the conclusion that the Project 72 did not quite correspond to the new needs. It turned out that the fleet command, with a clear understanding of the need for ships of this class in the Navy, did not fully determine its attitude to the concept of their construction.

Most likely, this circumstance was not the main reason, but it largely influenced the fact that in the new shipbuilding program approved on November 27, 1945 for the years 1946-1955, there were no aircraft carriers.