aircraft carrier, ship designed to carry aircraft and to permit takeoff and landing of planes. The carrier's distinctive features are a flat upper deck (flight deck) that functions as a takeoff and landing field, and a main deck (hangar deck) beneath the flight deck for storing and servicing the aircraft. The aircraft carrier emerged after World War I as an experimentally modified cruiser. The first aircraft carrier built (1925) from the keel up as an aircraft carrier for the U.S. navy was the U.S.S. Saratoga. The aircraft carrier remained an experimental and untested war vessel until World War II, when the Japanese destroyed or drove out of the East Asian waters the British, Dutch, and U.S. navies with carrier-borne aircraft. By 1942 the aircraft carrier had replaced the battleship as the major unit in a modern fleet, and in World War II it was indispensable in naval operations against a sea- or land-based enemy. The battle of the Coral Sea (1942) was fought by naval aircraft, and the two opposing fleets never came within gunshot range of each other. After World War II aircraft carriers were enlarged and improved by the British and U.S. navies and became the nucleus of the standard naval combat formation. With the introduction of nuclear-powered carriers in the 1960s, extremely lengthy voyages became possible because such carriers do not need regular refueling.

Bibliography

See N. Polmar, Aircraft Carriers (1969); G. L. Pawlowski, Flat-Tops and Fledglings (1971); C. G. Reynolds, The Fast Carriers (1978).

aircraft carrier

Naval vessel equipped with a platform that allows airplanes to take off and land. Takeoffs are facilitated by the use of catapults or by a ramp at the end of the flight deck. For landing, aircraft are fitted with retractable hooks that engage arresting wires on the deck, or they are built with vectored-thrust engines that allow them to be landed vertically. Britain's Royal Navy developed the first true aircraft carrier near the end of World War I, and carriers played leading roles in World War II naval engagements such as the Pearl Harbor attack and the Battles of Midway and the Coral Sea. The largest modern carriers are 1,000-ft (300-m) nuclear-powered vessels of the U.S. Navy, which can carry 100 jet aircraft. Other types include the light carrier, equipped for anti-submarine warfare and ground attack, and the helicopter carrier, intended for conducting amphibious assault.