March 23, 2022

Essex-Class Aircraft Carriers

As aviation and naval technology advanced in the early-to-mid twentieth century, aircraft became faster and carried heavier weapons. The US Navy responded to these developments by designing the Essex, a new class of aircraft carriers that could accommodate more and bigger planes. From 1942 through 1945, large numbers of the Essex-class, the most

March 21, 2022

First Carrier to the Fleet: USS Langley in the Interwar Navy

On 20 March 1922, less than two decades after Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first successful sustained flight in a heavier-than-air aircraft, the U.S. Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier: the 11,500 ton Langley (CV-1).The U.S. Navy led the world in naval aviation prior to World War I after successfully launching the first aircraft

June 3, 2020

Great Lake: The Fascinating History of NNSY's World War II Aircraft Carrier USS Lake Champlain

Photos Courtesy of Marcus Robbins, Shipyard HistorianBefore it became a facility dedicated to maintenance and modernization almost 70 years ago, Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) used to build ships. In the case of World War II, sometimes 27,000-ton ones.June 3 will mark the 75th anniversary of commissioning the NNSY aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain

Dec. 12, 2019

When Caroline Kennedy Last Christened a Ship in the Name of Her Father

191207-N-PG550-1463 NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Dec. 7, 2019) Caroline Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy's daughter, former ambassador to Japan, and sponsor of the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), christens the ship, Dec. 7, 2019. US...

July 20, 2018

USS Robin: When the CNO Needed a Royal Navy Carrier - Part II

Editor's note: This is Part Two of "USS Robin: When the CNO Needed a Royal Navy Carrier." Read Part One here.Victorious departed Norfolk on Feb. 3 en route to the Panama Canal and assigned the U.S. Navy two-syllable call sign "Robin." Intensive flight operations utilizing U.S. Navy procedures, both with Martlet IV (Wildcat F4F-4) fighters and the

July 20, 2018

USS Robin: When the CNO Needed a Royal Navy Carrier - Part I

In autumn 1942, Adm. Ernest J. King, the Chief of Naval Operations, faced a dilemma: The battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, and the still-ongoing Guadalcanal campaign had severely weakened the U.S. Navy's fleet carrier presence in the Pacific. USS Lexington (CV 2) had been lost at Coral Sea, USS Yorktown (CV 5) at Midway, and Hornet (CV 8) during

June 7, 2013

Midway Operational Lesson

MIDWAY'S OPERATIONAL LESSON: THE NEED FOR MORE CARRIERSThe Japanese employing six aircraft carriers at one time, as they did in the attack on Oahu on December 7, 1941, proved a radical undertaking. The U.S. Navy's carriers, by contrast, had never numbered more than two or three during infrequent maneuvers, and the war's coming in 1941 found only