Shipbucket

Okay. But I'd assume that there was a good reason why all RN cruisers had their hangars facing aft (and not just for convenience); the reasoning could be that a ship steaming into weather offers better protection to a large folding hangar door. I still consider that this design is trying (with commendable effort) to fit more into that given space than would be deemed practical in 'real life'.

Vacuum packed

I'm happy with it as a flawed design re aviation facilities at the moment, my current plan is to remove the catapult and aircraft in a mid-war refit so if the current layout were to cause problems in service then that would just expedite the removal.

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That was indeed one of the reasons, but it's worth noting that this is a significantly larger ship and the whole launch area is better protected from weather than on most British heavy cruisers.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
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Source Materiel is always welcome.

Fair enough, but somehow it just looks odd, and I'd still go with what was done in real life

I took a stab at BCL Recherche in SS2 having to guess at armor, again the design is excellent. I actually managed to squeeze another 0.5 knots out of the specs and I'm still a bit under maximum displacement. I'm thinking about increasing displacement to the max to add a touch more armor...

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Recherche, Recherche Light Battlecruiser laid down 1936

Displacement:
19,880 t light; 20,694 t standard; 22,675 t normal; 24,261 t full load

Dimensions: Length overall / water x beam x draught
736.86 ft / 728.35 ft x 83.66 ft x 27.89 ft (normal load)
224.60 m / 222.00 m x 25.50 m x 8.50 m

Armament:
9 - 10.00" / 254 mm guns (3x3 guns), 500.00lbs / 226.80kg shells, 1936 Model
Breech loading guns in turrets (on barbettes)
on centreline ends, majority forward, 1 raised mount - superfiring
2 - 4.53" / 115 mm guns (1x2 guns), 46.48lbs / 21.08kg shells, 1936 Model
Dual purpose guns in a deck mount with hoist
on centreline aft, all raised guns - superfiring
12 - 4.53" / 115 mm guns (6x2 guns), 46.48lbs / 21.08kg shells, 1936 Model
Dual purpose guns in deck mounts with hoists
on side, all amidships
32 - 1.57" / 40.0 mm guns (4x8 guns), 1.95lbs / 0.88kg shells, 1936 Model
Anti-aircraft guns in deck mounts
on side, evenly spread, all raised mounts
16 - 0.50" / 12.7 mm guns (4x4 guns), 0.06lbs / 0.03kg shells, 1936 Model
Machine guns in deck mounts
on side, evenly spread, all raised mounts
Weight of broadside 5,214 lbs / 2,365 kg
Shells per gun, main battery: 120

Armour:
- Belts: Width (max) Length (avg) Height (avg)
Main: 7.87" / 200 mm 440.00 ft / 134.11 m 12.00 ft / 3.66 m
Ends: 2.95" / 75 mm 100.00 ft / 30.48 m 12.00 ft / 3.66 m
188.35 ft / 57.41 m Unarmoured ends
Main Belt covers 93 % of normal length

- Torpedo Bulkhead:
1.57" / 40 mm 600.00 ft / 182.88 m 20.00 ft / 6.10 m

- Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
Main: 7.87" / 200 mm 5.91" / 150 mm 7.87" / 200 mm
2nd: 1.97" / 50 mm 1.97" / 50 mm -
3rd: 1.97" / 50 mm 1.97" / 50 mm -
4th: 1.18" / 30 mm - -

- Armour deck: 2.76" / 70 mm, Conning tower: 7.87" / 200 mm

Machinery:
Oil fired boilers, steam turbines,
Geared drive, 4 shafts, 112,139 shp / 83,656 Kw = 32.00 kts
Range 12,000nm at 14.00 kts
Bunker at max displacement = 3,567 tons

Complement:
923 - 1,201

Cost:
£8.878 million / $35.513 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 652 tons, 2.9 %
Armour: 6,160 tons, 27.2 %
- Belts: 1,901 tons, 8.4 %
- Torpedo bulkhead: 697 tons, 3.1 %
- Armament: 1,334 tons, 5.9 %
- Armour Deck: 2,092 tons, 9.2 %
- Conning Tower: 136 tons, 0.6 %
Machinery: 3,146 tons, 13.9 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 9,572 tons, 42.2 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 2,795 tons, 12.3 %
Miscellaneous weights: 350 tons, 1.5 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
39,948 lbs / 18,120 Kg = 79.9 x 10.0 " / 254 mm shells or 5.9 torpedoes
Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.09
Metacentric height 4.5 ft / 1.4 m
Roll period: 16.6 seconds
Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 70 %
- Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.60
Seaboat quality (Average = 1.00): 1.40

Hull form characteristics:
Hull has a flush deck
and transom stern
Block coefficient: 0.467
Length to Beam Ratio: 8.71 : 1
'Natural speed' for length: 31.28 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 52 %
Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 50
Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 16.00 degrees
Stern overhang: 0.00 ft / 0.00 m
Freeboard (% = measuring location as a percentage of overall length):
- Stem: 29.69 ft / 9.05 m
- Forecastle (20 %): 27.69 ft / 8.44 m
- Mid (50 %): 25.69 ft / 7.83 m
- Quarterdeck (15 %): 25.69 ft / 7.83 m
- Stern: 25.69 ft / 7.83 m
- Average freeboard: 26.55 ft / 8.09 m

Ship space, strength and comments:
Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 91.1 %
- Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 221.1 %
Waterplane Area: 40,970 Square feet or 3,806 Square metres
Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 126 %
Structure weight / hull surface area: 150 lbs/sq ft or 734 Kg/sq metre
Hull strength (Relative):
- Cross-sectional: 0.94
- Longitudinal: 1.66
- Overall: 1.00
Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is adequate
Room for accommodation and workspaces is excellent
Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

Miscellaneous weight includes a cross-deck catapult and crane amidships for 2 floatplanes (no hanger).

After some time away from this thread I've got some time to post another Destroyer design, (though not the prettiest in the Recherche fleet):

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lovely!

I guess it's too late to mention but the US New Orleans class had hangars facing the same way. I believe they were the only US surface ships to have superstructure hangars (a few light cruiser classes had in-hull hangars and most ships didn't have hangars period).

The Northamptons and the Portlands did have proper hangars, that were part of the amidships superstructure.

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Very nice destroyer. One issue that comes to my mind though is that most ships have screws much closer to the rudder.