User:Anynobody/Aircraft carrier

aircraft carrier
 * 1) History and milestones prior to World War II
 * 2) Early history (World War I and earlier)
 * 3) Balloon carriers
 * 4) Inter-war developments
 * 5) Seaplane tenders
 * 6) Genesis of the flat-deck carrier
 * 7) Hydraulic catapults
 * 8) World War II:conflict and innovation
 * 9) Catapult aircraft merchant carriers
 * 10) CVLs
 * 11) CVEs
 * 12) Hurricane bow
 * 13) Early Jet Age
 * 14) Jet aircraft
 * 15) Korean War
 * 16) 3 key developments
 * 17) Angled deck
 * 18) Steam catapults
 * 19) Landing system
 * 20) Post-Korea through Vietnam
 * 21) CVA/CVS
 * 22) Nuclear age
 * 23) ASW carriers
 * 24) Amphibious assualt ships
 * 25) British carriers through East-of-Suez pullback
 * 26) Vietnam
 * 27) Post-Vietnam to Iraq
 * 28) UNS's multipurpose CV/CVN
 * 29) V/STOL carriers (Britian, Spain, USSR)
 * 30) Ski jump
 * 31) Falklands War
 * 32) Soviet attempts to field supercarriers
 * 33) Operation Desert Storm
 * 34) Aircraft carriers today
 * 35) Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom
 * 36) Flight deck
 * 37) Summary of basic types
 * 38) Future aircraft carriers
 * 39) EMALS

History and milestones
Though aircraft carriers are given their definition with respect to fixed-wing aircraft, the first known instance of using a ship for airborne operations occurred in 1806, when the British Royal Navy's Lord Thomas Cochrane launched kites from the 32-gun frigate HMS Pallas in order to drop propaganda leaflets on the French territory.

Balloon carriers
On July 12, 1849, the Austrian Navy ship Vulcano launched a manned hot air balloon in order to drop bombs on Venice, although the attempt failed due to contrary winds.

Later, during the American Civil War, about the time of the Peninsula Campaign, gas-filled balloons were being used to perform reconnaissance on Confederate positions, the battles turned inland into the heavily forested areas of the Peninsula where balloons could not travel. A coal barge, the George Washington Parke Custis, was cleared of all deck rigging to accommodate the gas generators and apparatus of balloons. From the GWP Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps, made his first ascents over the Potomac River and telegraphed claims of the success of the first aerial venture ever made from a water-borne vessel. Other barges were converted to assist with the other military balloons transported about the eastern waterways. It is only fair to point out in deference to modern aircraft carriers that none of these Civil War crafts had ever taken to the high seas.

Balloons launched from ships led to the development of balloon carriers, or balloon tenders, during World War I, by the navies of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Sweden. About ten such "balloon tenders" were built, their main objective being aerial observation posts. These ships were either decommissioned or converted to seaplane tenders after the war.

Seaplane carriers
The invention of the seaplane in March 1910 with the French Le Canard led to the earliest development of a ship designed to carry airplanes, albeit equipped with floats: in December 1911 appears the French Navy La Foudre, the first seaplane carrier, and the first known carrier of airplanes. Commissioned as a seaplane tender, and carrying float-equipped planes under hangars on the main deck, from where they were lowered on the sea with a crane, she participated in tactical exercises in the Mediterranean in 1912. La Foudre was further modified in November 1913 with a 10 meters flat deck to launch her seaplanes.

HMS Hermes, temporarily converted as an experimental seaplane carrier in April-May 1913, is also one of the first seaplane carriers, and the first experimental seaplane carrier of the British Navy. She was originally laid down as a merchant ship, but was converted on the building stocks to be a seaplane carrier for a few trials in 1913, before being converted again to a cruiser, and back again to a seaplane carrier in 1914. She was sunk by a German submarine in October 1914. The first seaplane tender of the US Navy was the USS Mississippi, converted to that role in December 1913.

Genesis of the flat-deck carrier
As heavier-than-air aircraft developed in the early 20th century various navies began to take an interest in their potential use as scouts for their big gun warships. In 1909 the French inventor Clément Ader published in his book "L'Aviation Militaire" the description of a ship to operate airplanes at sea, with a flat flight deck, an island superstructure, deck elevators and a hangar bay. That year the US Naval Attaché in Paris sent a report on his observations.

A number of experimental flights were made to test the concept. Eugene Ely was the first pilot to launch from a stationary ship in November 1910. He took off from a structure fixed over the forecastle of the US armored cruiser USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia and landed nearby on Willoughby Spit after some five minutes in the air. On January 18 1911 he became the first pilot to land on a stationary ship. He took off from the Tanforan racetrack and landed on a similar temporary structure on the aft of USS Pennsylvania anchored at the San Francisco waterfront &mdash; the improvised braking system of sandbags and ropes led directly to the arrestor hook and wires described above. His aircraft was then turned around and he was able to take off again. Commander Charles Samson, RN, became the first airman to take off from a moving warship on May 2 1912. He took off in a Short S27 from the battleship HMS Hibernia while she steamed at 10.5 knots (19 km/h) during the Royal Fleet Review at Weymouth.

HMS Ark Royal was arguably the first modern aircraft carrier. She was originally laid down as a merchant ship, but was converted on the building stocks to be a hybrid airplane/ seaplane carrier. Launched in 1914, she served in the Dardanelles campaign and throughout World War I.

The first strike from a carrier against a land target took place on December 25 1914, when Twelve seaplanes from HMS' Engadine, Riviera and Empress (cross-channel steamers converted into seaplane carriers )attacked the Zeppelin base at Cuxhaven. The attack was not a success. Other carrier operations were mounted during the war the most successful taking place on 19 July 1918 when seven Sopwith Camels launched from HMS Furious attacked the German Zeppelin base at Tondern, with two 50 lb bombs each. Several airships and balloons were destroyed, but as the carrier had no method of recovering the aircraft safely, two of the pilots ditched their aircraft in the sea alongside the carrier while the others headed for neutral Denmark.