User:Tfdavisatsnetnet
Introduction
I am interested in mostly everything. At the penultimate position on my list is science and technology, which I have taught in a museum setting. Within that lies astronomy and cosmology, astronautics and aeronautics, and naval and maritime subjects (as a start). I have contributed a bit to Wiki astronomy, aviation, and space articles, but most such articles are already fairly well written, so I have turned my attention to naval history.
Philosophy of science
I would like to contribute to the articles on this subject, but have found I have to do much more research on RS for good citations.
Aerospace history
New articles
1. List of T-45 Goshawk losses
- An August 2022 news story of a Goshawk crash made me notice that there was no list of accidents in the Wiki article on the plane. So I started one, but as it grew I felt it became too large for the article. Therefore I created a separate article, based on the F-15 losses article.
- Postscript: I have since discovered that the consensus view is that military aircraft accidents usually are 'not notable' due to their frequency. Yes, I can understand leaving them out of the aircraft articles due to the size they would take (which is why I created this article). However, such a view ignores the value of the aircraft to the taxpayer (the consensus view on this is specious) and the metadata value with regards to accident causes. I hope this will be reconsidered someday.
Revised articles
1. List of aerospace engineers
- I always wanted to see this article, and one day I found it. However, so many names were missing it was an embarrassment. I have over doubled the byte size of the article with new people.
2. Talk:Floatplane § Single float advantage
- This article failed to mention a US Navy argument for aircraft with single floats: namely, that a partial flood would not unbalance the aircraft. Because I could not find an RS I had to put it on the talk page, so it would not be forgotten.
Upcoming articles
1. Gerald Vultee
- I was really surprised to find this aviation pioneer lacks a biography on Wikipedia. If I can get more RS sources I will fix this omission.
New articles
Here are the three articles I have published:
1. Ship Characteristics Board aka SCB
- Having held a project management certification, I am fascinated by the 'how things are done' aspect of naval construction, and have felt that most Wiki naval histories have been very superficial with this aspect. A collection of US Navy SCB projects helps to outline this process in the 1945-1965 era. Many other ship articles were modified to list pertinent SCB project numbers and to reference back to this new page.
- A full understanding of the project management process should include an understanding of the 'roads not taken'. The US Navy (and other navies, especially the UK's Royal Navy) have often canceled ships that were about to be built. The 1945 cancellation of the US CL-154-class cruiser is a fascinating but previously unwritten case.
3. List of yard and district craft of the United States Navy
- This somewhat odd article started for an odd reason. In my experience the article List of auxiliaries of the United States Navy was much too large for my computer to load properly. I decided that information to be found in other 'US Navy list' articles should not be listed with the auxiliaries. There was already a List of unclassified miscellaneous vessels of the United States Navy, so I removed the identical list in the auxiliaries article and replaced it with a single wlink. The space problem did not go away, so I proposed a 'List of yard and district craft of the United States Navy' on the Ships:Talk page. No one objected.
- So, I copied the yard and district craft in the auxiliaries article to my sandbox. I knew I had to look for more info on such craft, and after a month I noticed that there was an interesting story in these rather uninteresting craft: the US Navy over the years had engaged in a huge number of conversions of these craft from one role to another, to a degree that appeared wasteful. I suspect this was due to the autonomy of each naval district. A rather boring list turned out to have real value from a metadata viewpoint, and the performance of the auxiliaries list page dramatically improved after the yard list article was published.
Revised articles
Here is a short list of some articles I have revised. In many cases I have only introduced new subheaders and rearranged existing text. In some articles I have only added wlinks of interest. In others I have tried to add new perspectives.
List of unclassified miscellaneous vessels of the United States Navy
- Like many list articles, this one had a secret waiting to be discovered. As I added text for the purpose of each ship, it became apparent that there was a mission that many of these ships fulfilled, namely that of the WW2 mobile bases that were created by the US Navy's Service Squadrons, which had been overlooked.
List of cruisers of the United States Navy
- This was the first large edit of mine. I expanded the running narrative of the US Navy's constantly revised plans, due to changes in needs, treaties and technology.
- This good article required massive improvements in scope: in the introduction definitions, in the history of aircraft and ships (especially with non-US craft), in radar designations, and in post-1980 developments. There is still some room for improvement.
- When I first read this article I was quite taken with how well written it was. At first I just added subheaders to make the implied themes explicit. Eventually I added a few items to flesh it out a bit, the most important was the failure to create a cheap nuclear hunter-killer sub.
SSK (hull classification symbol)
- All of these articles benefitted from adjustments to bring them into better agreement with the revised Radar picket and Attack submarine articles. There were also overlaps in the Gato, Balao, and Tench articles regarding post-WW2 conversions that were removed.
Sturgeon-class submarine § Noise reduction
- Corrected the misperception that Narwhal was Sturgeon-class, and brought up the possibility this misperception was the result of a disinformation campaign to hide Narwhal's unique features.
USS Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN-685) § Design
- Added many details to this history.
List of submarines of the United States Navy
- Added info from the revised Radar picket, Attack submarine, USS Narwhal (SSN-671) and USS Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN-685) articles. Added info from the Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program as well.
- Added the section on the canceled sister ship CLK-2.
Mitscher-class destroyer § Description
- Added info on this class's competition with the CL-154 and Norfolk classes, SCB project numbers, DDG conversions subsection.
Forrest Sherman-class destroyer § Description
- Added subsections for SCB project info
USS Enterprise (CVN-65) § Design
- Added subsections, rearranged text to flow better.
United States Navy bureau system § Coordination of bureaus
- Created this section to explain the failures that led to the creation of the Ship Characteristics Board.
- Added a description of how net laying was incorporated into the US government's War Plan Orange, how the first net laying auxiliary ships were designed for this plan, and how new technology and strategy forced the complete abandonment of this plan and the conversion of these ships to other roles. Also added YNG and YNT craft, which were missing.
If I think of any others that might be of interest I will add them to this section.
Upcoming projects
1. Halsey Powell
- I would like to publish a new Wiki biography of him. I did add much new info to USS Halsey Powell § Namesake section, but he needs his own bio so that he can be properly credited in the Distinguished Service Order article.
2. Command cruisers
- There is currently no good overview of this concept; pieces can be found in the articles on Command ship, National Emergency Command Post Afloat, Radar picket, and the three individual ships that were used or intended for this role.
- The written technological parentage of these ships is based on a flawed RS, a re-write with new sources is necessary.
Thanks!Tfdavisatsnetnet (talk) 05:35, 8 June 2022 (UTC)