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Nathan Woods, age 13, of Lynn, Mass., for his question:

WHEN WAS THE FIRST AIRCRAFT CARRIER USED?

An aircraft carrier is a ship with a long, unobstructed flight deck that permits takeoffs and landings by high performance airplanes. In effect, it is a mobile air base. The earliest flight from a ship was made off an improvised platform on the United States Navy cruiser Birmingham in 1910.

The first true carrier designed to permit takeoffs and landings was the British merchant ship HMS Argus, completed in 1918. The first U.S. carrier, the Langley, a converted collier, joined the fleet in 1922, and in 1927 the Lexington and Saratoga were converted from battle cruisers.

After World War I, major carrier fleets were built by the U.S., Japan and Britain, and in the 1930s tactical excercises were held by the U.S. Navy to study and improve efficiency of its carrier operations.

By World War II, however, Japan's carrier fleet was numerically and qualitatively superior to the American and British fleets in the Pacific. The use of six aircraft carriers by Japan to attack Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, opened the war in the Pacific. No American carriers were present during the attack.

The major battle of Midway in the Pacific from June 3 to 6, 1942, cost the Japanese four carriers. America lost one, the Yorktown. But this victory gained the U. S. mastery of the skies and of the seas and turned the tide of the war.

By 1944 the Japanese navy had been destroyed primarily by carrier based aircraft assault, in addition to submarine action. In the European theater, England used carriers in support of operations in Norway and for convoy support in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Carriers were also part of the British Eastern Fleet.

Carriers, equipped with or capable of carrying missiles, are the heart of modern forces.

Some of today's aircraft carriers are giants. The Nimitz, which is nuclear propelled, is 1,092 feet in length. Can you imagine a carrier that is more than three times as long as a football field?

The Nimitz displaces 96,000 tons and is equipped with four steam catapults. It is capable of handling 90 aircraft with their associated maintenance facilities, fuel, ammunition and parts. The ship accommodates a crew of 3,300 plus an air wing (that is, pilots and support crew), numbering about 3,000.

The Nimitz is capable of indefinite sea operation when supported by periodic reprovisioning. The angled flight deck permits simultaneous launching and landing of aircraft.

All the present U. S. fleet is of the attack class, with capabilities for conversion to use as submarine warfare, utility and assault helicopter aircraft carriers.

 

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