I begin my FLATTOP SAILOR Treatise here,
After Dan's history lesson, in Part Two, I begin Whazammo's FLATTOP SAILOR Treatise here:
In around the years of 1937-1938, and at a time when we in the US had 3 wAorking USN Carriers of the Yorktown Class and one smaller Wasp Class carrier, this was before before Pearl Harbor, and before the Essex Carrier design class came to be.
As of April 2023, we have built 80 US Aircraft carriers…I list them here by design class.
Remember ... the US Navy records and the historians both make a big mistake in failing to mention that of the 34 Essex carriers built and commissioned after 1942, not all were in reality, of the Essex class… 12 were of the long-hull TICONDEROGA class ! only 13 short-hull Essex carriers were ever built.
NOTE: CV1 through CVB57 were all originally built as straight deck carriers, those shown with a CV “A” denotation were then later converted to become angle deck carriers in the 1950-1955 era, PLUS, those three Essex and three Ticonderoga carriers with the SCB-27C sub-titles were were 2 foot wider, 3,000 tons heavier, and additionally also equipped with steam catapults, jet blast deflectors, deck cooling, fuel blending facilities, emergency recovery barriers, and storage and handling for nuclear weapons, their No. 3 elevator was moved to the starboard deck edge further aft, steel plating installed on the flight deck, and a lot more differences !
CV-1 Langley 1920 (converted from the collier USS Jupiter)
CV-2 Lexington 1922 (converted from a 1916 Battleship hull)
CV-3 Saratoga 1922 (converted from a 1916 Battleship hull)
CV-4 Ranger 1934 (built as a "treaty era ship")
CV-5 Yorktown 1937 (Yorktown-class
CV-6 Enterprise 1938 (Yorktown-class)
CV-7 Wasp 1940 (Wasp-class)
CV-8 Hornet 1941 (Yorktown-class)
CVA-9 Essex 1942 Essex-class
CVA-10 Yorktown 1943 Essex-class
CVA-11 Intrepid 1943 Essex-class SCB-27C
CVA-12 Hornet 1943 Essex-class
CV-13 Franklin 1944 Essex-class
CVA-14 Ticonderoga 1944 Ticonderoga -class SCB-27C
CVA-15 Randolph 1944 Ticonderoga-class
CVA-16 Lexington 1943 Essex-class SCB-27C
CV-17 Bunker Hill 1943 Essex-class
CVA-18 Wasp 1943 Essex-class
CVA-19 Hancock 1944 Ticonderoga-class SCB-27C
CVA-20 Bennington 1944 Essex-class
CV-21 Boxer 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CVL-22 Independence 1943 Independence-class
CVL-23 Princeton 1943 Independence-class
CVL-24 Belleau Wood 1943 Independence-class
CVL-25 Cowpens 1943 Independence-class
CVL-26 Monterey 1943 Independence-class
CVL-27 Langley 1943 Independence-class
CVL-28 Cabot 1943 Independence-class
CVL-29 Bataan 1943 Independence-class
CVL-30 San Jacinto 1943 Independence-class
CVA-31 Bonhomme Richard 1944 Essex-class SCB-27C
CV-32 Leyte 1946 Ticonderoga-class
CVA-33 Kearsarge 1946 Ticonderoga-class
CVA-34 Oriskany (suspended 1945) 1950 Ticonderoga-class
CV-35 Reprisal Cancelled (August 11, 1945) Ticonderoga-class
CV-36 Antietam 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CV-37 Princeton 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CVA-38 Shangri-la 1944 Ticonderoga-class SCB-27C
CVA-39 Lake Champlain 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CV-40 Tarawa 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CV-41 Midway 1945 Midway-class
CV-42 Franklin D. Roosevelt 1945 Midway-class
CV-43 Coral Sea 1947 Midway-class
CV-44 Reprisal (August 1945) Cancelled Midway-class
CV-45 Valley Forge 1946 Ticonderoga-class
CV-46 Iwo Jima Cancelled (August 11, 1945) Ticonderoga -class
CV-47 Philippine Sea 1946 Ticonderoga -class
CVL-48 Saipan 1946 Saipan-class
CVL-49 Wright 1946 Saipan-class
CV-50 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Ticonderoga -class
CV-51 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CV-52 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CV-53 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CV-54 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CV-55 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Ticonderoga-class
CVB-56 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Midway-class
CVB-57 Unnamed Cancelled 1945 Midway-class
CVA-58 United States Cancelled (April 18, 1949) United States-class
CVA-59 Forrestal 1955 Forrestal-class
CVA-60 Saratoga 1956 Forrestal-class
CVA-61 Ranger 1957 Forrestal-class
CVA-62 Independence 1959 Forrestal-class
CVA-63 Kitty Hawk 1961 Kitty Hawk- class supercarrier,
CVA-64 Constellation 1961 Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier
CVN-65 Enterprise 1961 Enterprise-class supercarrier
CVA-66 America 1965 Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier
CVA-67 John F. Kennedy 1968 Kennedy-class supercarrier
CVN-68 Nimitz 1975 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-69 Dwight D. Eisenhower 1977 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-70 Carl Vinson 1981 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt 1986 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-72 Abraham Lincoln 1989 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-73 George Washington 1992 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-74 John C. Stennis 1995 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-75 Harry S. Truman 1998 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-76 Ronald Reagan 2003 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-77 George H.W. Bush 2009 Nimitz-class supercarrier
CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford 2017 Gerald R. Ford Class supercarrier
CVN-79 John F. Kennedy 2019 Gerald R. Ford Class supercarrier
CVN-80 Enterprise 2022 Gerald R. Ford Class supercarrier
The USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), USS William J. Clinton (CVN-82), and USS George W. Bush (CVN-83) are next.Oriskany was the final Ticonderoga-class ship built. Oddly, the Oriskany (CV-34) was ordered, and laid down as a Ticonderoga-class vessel in 1943, but was not finally completed until 1950! . . . that's 7 full years laying in dry-dock! ORISKANY was an on-going, "new idea” CVA angle-deck Carrier" design test bench, but, in the end never received SCB-27C.
NOTE: THE “CANCELLED” CARRIERS:
Reprisal (CV-35), was laid down in July 1944 at the New York Navy Yard and launched in 1945, but was scrapped incomplete after tests; and USS Iwo Jima (CV-46) was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding yards in January 1945 but cancelled in August 1945 and broken up on the shipways. Six Carriers planned for building in 1945, (none of which ever received names), were contracted to Bethlehem Steel Company, for (CV-50), New York Navy Yard (CVs 51, 52), the Philadelphia Navy Yard (CV-53), and Norfolk Navy Yard (CV's 54 and 55). All constructions were cancelled in March of 1945.
Only three of the later Midway class 1940’s designed carriers were ever built:
CV 42, 43, 44 (Coral Sea, Midway, and Franklin D. Roosevelt) their poor sea-worthiness, and overly flexible flight decks were simply not acceptable, the class was rejected and all of the later ordered carriers of this class were cancelled.
The four Forrestal class carriers were actually the "Super Carrier" experimental design trials leading to the building of the CVA 63 Kitty Hawk class of "true" Super Carrier.
The US Nuclear Navy currently (2023) has 13 operational aircraft carriers, CVN 68 NIMITZ is the oldest (1972), all are nuclear, the number of aircraft carried aboard is no greater than what could be stuffed aboard TICONDEROGA (around 115 aircraft-but-always advertised as 90), Ticonderoga's 30 foot draft draft was 9 full feet less than the new 39 foot draft nuclear carriers, Ticonderoga hull sizes were about 200 foot shorter (910 vs. 1106) and 30 foot narrower, only hen"because" all of the 103 foot wide pre-Nuclear carriers built "had" to pass through the Panama Canal when the locks had a width limit of 105 feet !, todays 35 foot wider hulled (135 foot beam) carriers have no such restrictions, as the canal is now widened to 168 feet wide. CVN's have a 1092 x 256 foot flight deck vs. the CVA-14 888 X 190 foot deck.
(of note, CVN-80 is an $18 BILLION Dollar carrier !!)
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As I recode and bring these old writings back to life… I am posting them here, they are in “no” order or sequence… this will (for awhile) be a mish-mosh of confusion… please bear with me….
