Gato Class Submarine (More or Less)

[pTrevTrevs]

Well, here it is, the demon that has been making me afraid to boot up KSP for the last month or so. The sad part is that this isn't even as finished as I would like it, but KSP physics and my low level of skill have made sure that the perfection I seek is impossible to attain. I do indeed have the craft complete, it sails on the water with a decent max speed, doesn't capsize (when handled responsibly), seats Kerbals on the bridge lookout stations, all that stuff. But despite my best efforts, I have yet to make this submarine dive-capable according to my desired standards. Oh well, when you try and build a submarine in a spaceflight simulator, i suppose some sacrifices have to be made. Anyway, here you go, the Gato Class Nightmare Fleet Submarine.

 
The Gato class formed the backbone of the US submarine fleet in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Although many people do not know it, the Gatos and other various submarines were one of the biggest contributors to the downfall of Japan and the Allied victory. They operated similarly to the German U-boats by raiding merchant shipping in an attempt to starve Japan out of the war, however they were also used for other duties, such as transporting agents and commandos, photographing islands in preparation for an invasion, etc. American naval doctrine also dictated that submarines were supposed to support surface fleets in large battles, scouting ahead for the enemy fleet and engaging them if possible. This is why they were known as fleet submarines. Because they were intended to operate alongside battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers, American submarines typically had a fairly high speed for submarines of that time (The Gato made around 21 knots on the surface). Likewise, they had an exceptionally long range because they were required to operate in the Pacific Ocean (A Gato submarine would have been able to travel 11,000 nautical miles at the speed of 10 knots). They were equipped with six fore and four aft torpedo tubes and boasted many features which were considered luxuries at the time, such as air conditioning, refrigerated food storage, and a bunk for every member of the crew. Their speed, range, firepower, and relative comfort, along with Japan's failure to develop any meaningful ASW techniques, helped these submarines succeed in the Pacific where Germany failed in the Atlantic (twice). By 1945, American submarines (which made up about 2% of the entire US Navy) sank approximately 30% of the Japanese Navy, including several capital ships. For comparison, the US only had around 200 Subs in WWII while Germany had over 1,000, and ultimately failed in their task. After the war, the Gatos were quickly decommissioned, as newer models based on the German Type XXI U-Boat rendered them obsolete. Several are still around as museum ships across the United States (I have been fortunate enough to visit USS Drum in Mobile, Alabama, the first Gato commissioned and one of the most successful)

Alright! Enough rambling about the real one, time to show you mine!. Although I had to forgo a detailed interior like my U-boat replica had, I was able to add three command seats for the deck watch, two for the deck gun crew, and make the AA positions accessible. The front mount features a Bofors 40mm cannon while the aft mount has a double barreled Oerlikon 20mm gun.

The Gato is equipped with two periscopes. historically, one had a greater magnification and a smaller head, and was used for daylight attacks, while the other had a larger head (for better night vision) and a greater elevation for searching for aircraft before surfacing. Both are represented on my sub and can extend and retract independently.

Although the sub can't dive as well as i would like, with some transferring of ore, it can be made to hang just below the surface, like in this picture here. Simply pump all the ore from the very back holding tank to the very front, make sure the engines are on full throttle, and pitch down!

I hope to make this sub fully submersible one day, but for right now, this exceeds my skill. If anyone knows how to make this sub dive and resurface (preferably without use of the engines and without jettisoning ore) please, let me know.

Any suggestions for improvement will be taken into consideration (As long as they are sensible, of course) and any feedback is always greatly appreciated. Feel free to post your own photos you've taken of this sub in this thread and let me know if you experience any problems with this craft.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Thanks for taking the time to read this thread, Enjoy! 

[SaturnianBlue]

Shouldn't you list the part count?  Awesome submarine! Now I wonder how it would work against a battleship like my Bismarck with torpedoes? My Bismarck has no Anti-Submarine weapons after all...

[pTrevTrevs]

14 hours ago, SaturnianBlue said:

Shouldn't you list the part count?  Awesome submarine! Now I wonder how it would work against a battleship like my Bismarck with torpedoes? My Bismarck has no Anti-Submarine weapons after all...

Yes and my submarine has NO weapons at all! Maybe one day I'll make a functional torpedo and sink a ship with it. Right now though, I need to take a break from KSP submarines for a while.

It looks like you can go to space in this game. Maybe I should try that sometime!

[pTrevTrevs]

Super cool render made by @esinohio

http://i.imgur.com/0ZalXDT.png

Looks it I can't embed it right now because I'm on mobile, but hey, it's an excuse to shamelessly bump this thread!

[SquaredSpekz]

I wonder why the water from Scatterer is bugging out like that?  would've turned it off.

[Dman979]

Huh, why does this not have more comments? I can't see it, but I'm sure that it looks great, like the U-Boat.

Have you ever been to see U-505? It's the only boarded German sub from WWII. It's in Chicago.

[pTrevTrevs]

1 hour ago, Dman979 said:

Huh, why does this not have more comments? I can't see it, but I'm sure that it looks great, like the U-Boat.

Have you ever been to see U-505? It's the only boarded German sub from WWII. It's in Chicago.

Yeah, too bad there aren't more comments, I spent way too much time on this for it to go unnoticed.

I've never been farther north than Colorado or Maryland in my life, so the only submarine I've had a chance to see is the USS Drum in Mobile. It would be cool to see U-505 though.

1 hour ago, SquaredSpekz said:

I wonder why the water from Scatterer is bugging out like that?  would've turned it off.

I'm not sure why it does that, although I suspect that it may be due to my lack of a graphics card. The water still looks okay from a distance, so I decided to leave it.

[Heckspress]

3 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

Yeah, too bad there aren't more comments, I spent way too much time on this for it to go unnoticed.

I've never been farther north than Colorado or Maryland in my life, so the only submarine I've had a chance to see is the USS Drum in Mobile. It would be cool to see U-505 though.

I'm not sure why it does that, although I suspect that it may be due to my lack of a graphics card. The water still looks okay from a distance, so I decided to leave it.

Dude. If you like subs, I'd recommend (I know it's far north, but kinda worth it) the Groton submarine museum, which has the Nautilus, or the USS Albacore which is its own thing and also the Carnegie Science center in Pittsburgh which has a sub, the name of which I can't remember.

[Dfthu]

11 hours ago, Dman979 said:

Huh, why does this not have more comments? I can't see it, but I'm sure that it looks great, like the U-Boat.

Have you ever been to see U-505? It's the only boarded German sub from WWII. It's in Chicago.

I saw it! I even went inside, super cool.

[Dman979]

6 minutes ago, Dfthu said:

I saw it! I even went inside, super cool.

Me too. It's pretty cramped in there.

[pTrevTrevs]

7 minutes ago, Dfthu said:

I saw it! I even went inside, super cool.

Seems like people here like the U-505. Maybe I'll do a Type IX D-2 U-boat next. This time though, I may use a mod of some sort to ensure that I get a fully functional dive system.

If it gives me as much trouble as this craft did I'm going to have to call it U-666.

[Deizelpunk]

Wow! That's very impressive man! I'm going to copy some of your techniques for sure!