Aircraft Carriers
Aircraft Carriers.Invented by the British during World War I, the aircraft carrier was adopted by the United States and Japan as an experimental weapon to augment the battle line. In contrast to the Japanese, whose fleet and carriers were designed for defensive operations in the western Pacific, the U.S. Navy planned for an offensive, transpacific war all the way to Japan and created the long‐legged “fast” (33‐knot) carrier to operate over those great distances. The navy first converted a collier (coaling ship) into the 11,050‐ton carrier Langley (CV‐1 “V” being the symbol for heavier‐than‐air craft), commissioned in 1922. Then it converted two battle‐cruiser hulls, as allowed by the Washington Naval Arms Limitation Treaty, into 36,000‐ton fast carriers of the Lexington class. While the 542‐foot Langley experimented with fighter and scout planes in fleet...
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