Photos Aircraft Carriers

The only aircraft carrier Germany has ever launched, the Graf Zeppelin. Displacing 32,000 tons, 861 ft long, and slated to carry 42 aircraft, which may have included 12 x Me Bf 109 fighters and 30 x Ju87 dive bombers.

She was never completed and is seen here at Stettin in 1941.
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13 January 1937 The Admiralty orders the building of the Fleet aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. The first aircraft carrier to be built at the Vickers Armstrong yard in Barrow-in-Furness. Frantic work began on producing around 2500 plans necessary for the construction of the ship, first known as Yard No.732, and these did not include ones for equipment and machinery that would be fitted.

HMS Illustrious (87) was, at that time, the fourth Royal Navy ship to and lead-ship of a new generation of aircraft carriers. Conceived in 1936 by Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, Third Sea Lord & Controller of the Navy, he was determined not to simply modify the unarmoured Ark-Royal design. He believed aircraft could not sucessfully defend a carrier without an early-warning system; and the ship should be capable of remaining in action after sustaining some damage, which involved fitting an armoured, single storey hangar; and 3" thick armour on the flight deck. Launched on 5 April 1939, completion was delayed two months to allow fitting of the Type 79Z early warning radar, which required the addition of a second main mast at the after end of her island. Pictured here, under construction, in 1939
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A bow view of the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CV-41) sailing in the wake of the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61). The frigate USS Francis Hammond (FF-1067) is off the Midway's port side, December 1987.
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Japan
Two of the twin mounts for 12cm Type 10 heavy anti-aircraft guns aboard the Japanese Carrier Akagi. The carrier carried twelve of these weapons in six twin mounts. While effective weapons when they were first introduced, the weapons had begun to show their age by the time of the Second World War.

Akagi was due to have the weapons replaced by newer, more capable 12.7cm (5") Type 89 weapons during a refit scheduled for late 1942. The sponsons were also to be modified, raising the guns higher to give them better-firing arcs. However, her loss during the Battle of Midway prevented this.
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The RN's Queen Elizabeth class carriers are fitted with two deck edge lifts with a load capacity of 54,000kg. The weight of an empty F-35B is about 15,000 kg.
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The final design (X1) of the Royal Navy's Malta class aircraft carriers. Four units were due to be laid down in 1945 but were canceled after the defeat of Japan and the post-war austerity.

They would have been the first RN carriers with open hangars like their USN counterparts. Length of 897 feet and 56,800 tons, they could have carried over 100 aircraft.

Due to the fact that the Malta's didn't have armoured decks, they would have been much easier and cheaper to modernise for the jet age than the armoured carriers proved to be.
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The final design (X1) of the Royal Navy's Malta class aircraft carriers. Four units were due to be laid down in 1945 but were canceled after the defeat of Japan and the post-war austerity.

They would have been the first RN carriers with open hangars like their USN counterparts. Length of 897 feet and 56,800 tons, they could have carried over 100 aircraft.

Due to the fact that the Malta's didn't have armoured decks, they would have been much easier and cheaper to modernise for the jet age than the armoured carriers proved to be.
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India's first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant (R11) with HMS Victorious (R38) cutting across her stern in the early 1960s.

Vikrant was originally a Majestic class light fleet carrier Hercules that was left unfinished until purchased by India in 1958.

She was fully modernized with a steam catapult, angled deck, and mirror landing aid and was commissioned in 1961.

On deck are Seahawks, Alize and a Whirlwind helicopter. Sea Harriers would operate from her in the 1980s and in 1989 she was fitted with a ski jump. She was decommissioned in 1997.
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