Never Built: CL-1201 – Found And Explained

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In 1969, Lockheed was tasked by the US air force to design a plane that was so big that it could carry 3000 troops, launch 22 parasite air to air jet fighters and fly for 41 days straight without landing.

But this design would never see the light of day, facing design challenges such as building a powerful enough nuclear reactor to how to even take off into the sky.

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Designed by Lockheed to find the upper size limit of aircraft using conventional 1969 materials and technology – this is the CL-1201, the biggest aircraft never built.

Introduction

The world of the late 60s was certainly an interesting one, right in the middle of the cold war and with an America that faced enemies across the globe. The department of Defense believed that there was a small chance that USA would become isolated from its allies, and cut off from its overseas bases.

Thus, the leaders that be needed a solution that could project an entire US army brigade slice abroad, especially to land locked areas of the world that were out of reach from the US’s many carrier groups.

Thus, the solution would be an aircraft. While the Boeing 747 that had just taken to flight was considered for the air force, Lockheed was put onto track to develop something even more gargantuan. A giant city sized flying aircraft carrier.

CL-1201

The project would be dubbed the CL-1201, based on the aerodynamic research for the previous CL-1170 – but with extensively increased dimensions.

The airframe would measure a wing span of 1120 feet, and be 560 feet long, giving the fuselage an interior space of 2 million cubic feet. A plane whose wingspan was 45 feet wider than the Chrysler building in New York is tall.

As for how much it could carry, the figure was set to around 10 million to 12 million pounds, or 5440 tonnes – a figure that was ballparked only because Lockheed couldn’t figure out why anyone would need to carry any more weight than that.

For such a huge plane, conventional fuel wouldn’t cut it – this sucker would be nuclear powered, with the reactor system giving out a combined 1.83 gigawatts – allowing this plane to fly 41 days straight at Mach 0.8 over 16,000 feet, only having to land because the crew would run out of food and water. The crew of 475  (which may go up to 800 during an active combat zone), would be needed to maintain operations for 24/7. The reactor itself wouldn’t need to be refueled for over 1000 operation hours.

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Because of this, the plane wouldn’t have any range limitations, and could fly anywhere in the world – well apart from where it could possibly land.

Versions of the CL-1201

You see there were actually two version of this plane. The CL-1201-1-1 and the CL-1201-1-3. There was also technically a mystery CL-1201-1-2 but all information about it has been scrubbed – but bear with me, we will get to that model later.

The first version, the CL-1201-1-1 was dubbed the Attack Aircraft Carrier. It would carry eleven fighter bombers under each wing, and two more in the fuselage hangers, for a total of 24 aircraft. While we don’t know what these final mini-jets would have been, in the documents, they are listed as the F-4 Phantoms.

The idea was that this plane would serve as the spearhead at the start of an invasion or military power projection, and be the command center for any military operation. The plane would also carry ten long range attack missiles, with Lockheed not ruling out that their warheads would be nuclear tipped. This plane would never land in enemy territory, simply circling the battlefield at 30,000 feet and around 600 miles away.

As for going deep behind enemy lines, that was up to the CL-1201-1-3, or dubbed, the Logistic Support Aircraft or LSA.

This version of the plane would be the carrier for the bulk of the mission, bringing drop troops and other equipment. It would carry 400 troops and 1150 tonnes of cargo. But you might be wondering, how did the LSA deploy these troops? Well, that’s the job of the equally ridiculous medium intratheater transport planes, converted Boeing 707s that would fly troops and materials back and forth from the LSA. The LSA would have a fleet of five 707 MITs that would physically dock three at a time to the LSA whilst in flight. The planes would approach from the rear and connect to the back of the plane – power down engines and open the nose through a special airlock. These planes would then fly troops and gear to drop zones for paratrooper operations, or land at friendly or captured airports.

In addition to the 400 troops on the LSA, there would be 150 troops on each MIT, to a combined total of 1150 troops in the entire mini-fleet.

But these aircraft wouldn’t actually operate on their own. It would be a fleet group of a single attack aircraft carrier, and seven, yes that’s right seven, logistic support aircraft. Because...