Quote:
|
both classes were faster underwater than surfaced
|
Yes. I'm not enough of a hydrodynamicist to know, but I'm curious as to whether fully submerged travel ought to be faster or slower, all else being equal. Under water, you've got more area wetted by a more viscous fluid, water instead of air. On the other hand, on the surface there are waves and pitching to deal with, which probably cost you forward progress.
Quote:
|
some cruisers or battleships carried a seaplane early on
|
Or even "later on", if we're talking WW2 era. For instance, the USS
Missouri carried seaplanes. They even trained in
maneuvers to help recovery.
(The Missouri had its keel laid down in 1941; commissioned in June 1944; reached Pearl Harbor at the end of 1944, leaving for the actual fighting at the beginning of 1945. So it doesn't get a lot later than that.)