Shipbucket

Groovy drawings. Needless to say, now everyone would want 18-inch-gun battleships

Ah, one quick question: If there's a crane at the stern, where's the aircraft facilities?

Like all US battleships, there would be no hangar, and aircraft were carried exposed to the elements. The only "facilities" were a crane and a catapult (or two). This is in contrast to US cruisers, which had extensive hangar facilities either amidships or in the stern.

This reflects the dramatic doctrinal difference between cruiser aircraft and battleship aircraft in the US Navy of the period. Cruiser floatplanes were for scouting. This day-to-day recon use required substantial facilities to maintain and operate the embarked aircraft and to carry spare parts and airframes. Battleship floatplanes were for spotting, and would operate pretty much only in a fleet action. They might be banged up or inoperable after the battle, but likely so would the ships which carried them!

I'm sure Colosseum can correct me on several detail points here

Nah, you nailed it -- the floatplanes on the BBs were considered much less valuable than the cruiser scouts. The lack of hangars on the BBs is reflected in the non-folding wings of the OS2U Kingfishers (vs. cruiser scouts like the SOC and SC Seahawk). When the Kingfishers were deployed to cruisers, they rode on the catapults since they couldn't fit in the hangars.

As I understand it the main benefit of the hangar was weather and gun blast protection, but again, I am not an expert.

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