I'm looking for pics of the inside of the hanger of a Tarawa class LHA 5 ship. Preferably pic or pics looking through the hanger entry or doors( whatever is the right term) Any links or maybe a small contribution will be duely noted. Thanks.

ti,
I don't know if this will prove helpful but I did find this pic on the defenselink site many months back. It's the USS Bataan (LHD 5). They may have more pics there like this one though. It was BIGGER before I edited it.

http://www.defenselink.mil

Jim

Thanks Jim. Not exactly what I was looking for but I'll check out the link any ways. Maybe I should have been a little exact. I mean't the hanger where they store the harriers not the amphibians.

Another thing. Does the hanger doors under the elevator ever closes fully?

Hanger doors can be shut for heavy weather or to close down the ship for NBC conditions. The doors are electrically driven by big motors about the size of a 55 gal drum that sit back in the pits fore and aft just inboard of the elevators.

Any pics?

No pics. We had the Essex with us in 1994 when we put into Pearl Harbor for intermission during RIMPAC 94. We were the good-guys defending the Hawaiian Islands against the bad-guys on the Independence. Their system looked about the same as we had aboard the Constellation for our elevators.

Thanks.

Hey there Ti!
I think this may have what you're looking for: Or close to it.Amphibious Assault Ship (General Purpose) (LHA) Index

Be sure to check the links too. Plenty of them.

BlueBear is right on about the doors. I was stationed on a LPH (the predecessor the the LHA) and the hangar bay (or sometimes called elevator) doors were essentially the same. During the day (except during heavy weather) the doors were kept open-mainly just for ventilation but because during the day you were doing more flight ops and moved helo's a lot more. And just for your info, the area where the 'amphibians' come out is the well deck.

I haven't seen the kit your working on but there is one thing I can think of particularly to watch out for. The LHA's were originally built with two 5-inch guns on the port and stbd bow. They have since all been removed and no longer used.

Here are some links:
http://www.hazegray.org/features/nato/us/tarawa/nass12.jpg
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/lha-1-gallery.htm

Thanks for all the info guys. Really helpful. This is just a portion that I'm modelling in 1/72 scale. This is going to be the base for my diorama. I'm modelling just one side of this ship and half a deck including one elevator. I'm almost done but was concern about modelling the inside of the hanger show-casing a harrier but I decided it would mean more detail work. So I decided to model the ship with the doors almost completely close hiding the unmodel portion of the hanger. So far looks good. As always I deviate from the original design just a bit when it came to the physical features of the ship. Yep...taking it just one step further...

Almost done uh, Ti? I would love to take a sneak peek of the model. You probably want to finish it first though before showing it off. Any ways I cant wait to see anything that you do. :-) See ya!

A sneak peek, you say? I could, but that would spoil the fun. You'll just have to wait for a couple of weeks. I'm off to Amsterdam for my cosin's wedding and will be back in about two weeks. While there I'll be checking out my othere interest - Homebuiltstabilizers.

Here are some pics of the unfinish carrier dio base. This will display one helicopter and one sea harrier. Click on link:

http://hem.passagen.se/tiking/lhdtestpics.html

Very nicely done TI. I can't wait to see the finished project.

thank you kindly.