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Submarine aircraft carriers are submarines equipped with airplanes for observation or attack missions. These submarines saw their most extensive use during World War II, although their operational significance remained rather small. The most famous of them were the Japanese submarine I-400 and the French submarine Surcouf, although a few similar craft were built by other nations' navies as well.
Japanese submarine aircraft carriers
Although the U.S. Navy remained discreet about it, the Japanese were ahead of the Allies in several areas of submarine development and underwater weapons. The I-400 class of Japanese submarines was the largest in the world until the 1960s when the nuclear fleets were built.

The Japanese applied the concept of the "submarine aircraft carrier" extensively. Altogether 47 submarines were built with the capability to carry seaplanes. Most IJN submarine aircraft carriers could carry only one aircraft, but the I-14 had a hangar space for 2 aircraft, and the giant I-400 class submarines could carry 3.


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Toku I-400 submarines
The Sen Toku I-400 submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy were the largest submarines of World War II, the largest non-nuclear submarines ever constructed, and the largest in the world until the development of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s. These were submarine aircraft carriers and each of them was able to carry 3 Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft underwater to their destinations. They also carried torpedoes for close range combat and were designed to surface, launch the planes then dive again quickly before they were discovered.

The I-400 was originally designed so that it could travel round-trip to anywhere in the world, and it was specifically intended to destroy the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal. A fleet of 18 boats was planned in 1942, and work on the first one was started in January 1943 at the Kure, Hiroshima arsenal. Within a year the plan was scaled back to five, and only three (I-400 at Kure, and the I-401 and I-402 at Sasebo) were completed.

Although the U.S. Navy remained discreet about it, the Japanese were ahead of the Allies in many aspects of submarine development and underwater weapons. During the Second World War, the Japanese had 30 different classes of submarines - from the one-man suicide torpedoes to the giant I-400 class of aircraft carriers, and used the world's most effective torpedoes, the Type 95.

Read more from wikipedia : Submarine aircraft carrier | I-400 class submarine
 
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