Guys I think it may be theoretically possible to land a B-17 on an Essex class carrier, real world. I found a diagram of this CV class here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Design_plan_Essex.jpgThe width of the flight deck is 109'; its length is 850'. The B-17's wingspan is about 104'. I think its possible to pick a line along the deck that avoids clipping the superstructure with your wingtip while still keeping the outboard main gear on the deck:
But, can it stop in time before it rolls off the front of the flight deck? I found a declassified document called B-17G Standard Aircraft Characteristics here:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/B-17/B-17G_Standard_Aircraft_Characteristics.pdf Here's the pertinent page, I think:
I've highlighted the stall speed (89 mph) and ground landing roll distance (1265 ft) on this image. I found a formula for braking distance in this wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braking_distanceThe maximum speed given an available braking distance d is given by:
v = √(2
μgd) where
μ is the coefficient of friction between tires and deck, and
g is gravity of Earth
I plugged in 850 ft for the distance and got a velocity of 233.24 ft/s, or 159 mph. (Please check my math, I used a perfect 1.0 of the CoF). I figure a B-17 would be coming in at just over stall speed (90 mph) and thus have a speed over the deck of 60 mph, or 88 ft/s. This is much less than the 233 ft/s required to stop in 850 ft, so theoretically I think its possible.
Its nice to hear that someone was able to do this in AH - we could look at this as a
strength of the game, not a weakness.
