100 Years of the U.S. Aircraft Carrier
By: Matthew Moss ~ 5/22/2018
In just a century, the aircraft carrier has evolved from launching canvas-winged biplanes to formidable fighter jets capable of attacking targets hundreds of miles away. Although the ships themselves have changed greatly over the past 100 years, the carrier remains the answer to one of the most difficult questions for any navy: How to project power by sea.
In 1942, Admiral William ‘Bull’ Halsey, one of America’s greatest carrier commanders, succinctly summed up the carrier’s role as enabling the U.S. Navy to “get to the other fellow with everything you have as fast as you can and to dump it on him.”
A summation that still applies today.
The Early Years
U.S. Navy The bridge of the USS Mississppi with a Curtiss flying boat onboard off Veracruz, Mexico, 1914.
The U.S. wasn't behind the first carriers. Developed during the early 20th century, seaplane carriers-or tenders-deployed across the Atlantic during World War I. As with the development of the tank, the U.S. Navy initially followed the lead of Britain and other European nations.
The U.S. Navy’s first seaplane carrier, the USS Mississippi, was converted from a battleship in 1913. Mississippi’s fledgling seaplanes saw action during the American occupation of Veracruz, Mexico, launching reconnaissance missions. Instead of launching planes from her deck, Mississippi lowered the aircraft into the water and collected them after they had landed. While this had its advantages at the time, it also prevented aircraft from flying when seas were rough.
© Library of Congress - Getty Images Eugene B. Ely, 1910.
The first major step toward the modern aircraft carrier came when ships started launching planes from their decks rather than the sea. But this required deck space, and lots of it. Early experiments saw traditional battleships temporarily converted with rudimentary flight decks built on top of gun turrets.
The first American to fly off a ship was civilian pilot Eugene B. Ely, who on November 14, 1910, successfully launched from the USS Birmingham. Ely, who couldn’t swim, wore two bicycle inner tubes across his chest as a makeshift life jacket.
The Birmingham, a light cruiser, had been fitted with an 83-foot-long wooden flight deck over its forward guns that sloped forward slightly to help give Ely’s Curtiss Pusher some extra momentum during takeoff. Rolling down the deck, the biplane plunged towards the water, its wheels dipping into the sea before ascending and landing on the nearby shore.
© U.S. Navy Eugene Burton Ely flies the first plane, a Curtiss pusher biplane, to ever launch from a ship off the USS Birmingham near in Hampton Roads, Virginia, November 1910.
Two months later Ely completed the first successful deck landing aboard another adapted ship, the Pennsylvania-this time using a tail hook and ropes as proto-arrestor cables. The Pennsylvania's captain, Captain C. F. Pond, described Ely’s landing as "the most important landing of a bird since the dove flew back to the ark.”
The early years of the 20th century saw the concept of seaborne aeronautics evolve quickly. With the Navy decommissioning the USS Mississippi in 1915, the U.S. would go on to play only a small naval role during World War I but continued to follow carrier developments.
The interwar period saw a number of firsts. The British HMS Argus was the first ship to have a full-length flight deck, and the HMS Hermes, launched in 1924, was the first carrier to have a control tower island, a feature that would last for more than 90 years and counting. In the East, the Japanese Imperial Navy experimented with carriers, commissioning the world’s first purpose-built carrier, the Honsho, in late 1922.
© John Highfill/U.S. Navy - Wikimedia Commons The USS Langley, Lexington, and Saratoga docked at the Pugent Sound Naval Shipyard, 1930.
In 1920, the U.S Navy launched is first aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1), originally a built as a collier but converted with a full-length flight deck. The Langley proved to be an important testbed and two battlecruiser hulls were subsequently repurposed during construction and fitted with flight decks.
The Lexington and Saratoga entered service in the late 1920s and would go on to be instrumental in cementing the carrier as a premiere ship of the U.S. Navy when once again the world plunged back into war.
.
By: Matthew Moss ~ 5/22/2018
In just a century, the aircraft carrier has evolved from launching canvas-winged biplanes to formidable fighter jets capable of attacking targets hundreds of miles away. Although the ships themselves have changed greatly over the past 100 years, the carrier remains the answer to one of the most difficult questions for any navy: How to project power by sea.
In 1942, Admiral William ‘Bull’ Halsey, one of America’s greatest carrier commanders, succinctly summed up the carrier’s role as enabling the U.S. Navy to “get to the other fellow with everything you have as fast as you can and to dump it on him.”
A summation that still applies today.
The Early Years
U.S. Navy The bridge of the USS Mississppi with a Curtiss flying boat onboard off Veracruz, Mexico, 1914.
The U.S. wasn't behind the first carriers. Developed during the early 20th century, seaplane carriers-or tenders-deployed across the Atlantic during World War I. As with the development of the tank, the U.S. Navy initially followed the lead of Britain and other European nations.
The U.S. Navy’s first seaplane carrier, the USS Mississippi, was converted from a battleship in 1913. Mississippi’s fledgling seaplanes saw action during the American occupation of Veracruz, Mexico, launching reconnaissance missions. Instead of launching planes from her deck, Mississippi lowered the aircraft into the water and collected them after they had landed. While this had its advantages at the time, it also prevented aircraft from flying when seas were rough.
© Library of Congress - Getty Images Eugene B. Ely, 1910.
The first major step toward the modern aircraft carrier came when ships started launching planes from their decks rather than the sea. But this required deck space, and lots of it. Early experiments saw traditional battleships temporarily converted with rudimentary flight decks built on top of gun turrets.
The first American to fly off a ship was civilian pilot Eugene B. Ely, who on November 14, 1910, successfully launched from the USS Birmingham. Ely, who couldn’t swim, wore two bicycle inner tubes across his chest as a makeshift life jacket.
The Birmingham, a light cruiser, had been fitted with an 83-foot-long wooden flight deck over its forward guns that sloped forward slightly to help give Ely’s Curtiss Pusher some extra momentum during takeoff. Rolling down the deck, the biplane plunged towards the water, its wheels dipping into the sea before ascending and landing on the nearby shore.
© U.S. Navy Eugene Burton Ely flies the first plane, a Curtiss pusher biplane, to ever launch from a ship off the USS Birmingham near in Hampton Roads, Virginia, November 1910.
Two months later Ely completed the first successful deck landing aboard another adapted ship, the Pennsylvania-this time using a tail hook and ropes as proto-arrestor cables. The Pennsylvania's captain, Captain C. F. Pond, described Ely’s landing as "the most important landing of a bird since the dove flew back to the ark.”
The early years of the 20th century saw the concept of seaborne aeronautics evolve quickly. With the Navy decommissioning the USS Mississippi in 1915, the U.S. would go on to play only a small naval role during World War I but continued to follow carrier developments.
The interwar period saw a number of firsts. The British HMS Argus was the first ship to have a full-length flight deck, and the HMS Hermes, launched in 1924, was the first carrier to have a control tower island, a feature that would last for more than 90 years and counting. In the East, the Japanese Imperial Navy experimented with carriers, commissioning the world’s first purpose-built carrier, the Honsho, in late 1922.
© John Highfill/U.S. Navy - Wikimedia Commons The USS Langley, Lexington, and Saratoga docked at the Pugent Sound Naval Shipyard, 1930.
In 1920, the U.S Navy launched is first aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1), originally a built as a collier but converted with a full-length flight deck. The Langley proved to be an important testbed and two battlecruiser hulls were subsequently repurposed during construction and fitted with flight decks.
The Lexington and Saratoga entered service in the late 1920s and would go on to be instrumental in cementing the carrier as a premiere ship of the U.S. Navy when once again the world plunged back into war.
.
