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The Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier - up to 1918

Yokel

LE
I thought that it might be worth having a thread about the way the aircraft carrier evolved into a recognisable form - with a flush deck, a hangar underneath, and flight deck lifts. I think this relates to the thread about the the RN Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War, and even current ones.

The first attempts to operate aircraft at sea naturally used seaplanes. The first ship to be converted to carry them was the cruiser HMS Hermes - other conversation followed.

Whilst the American stunt flyer Eugene Ely demonstrated landing on and taking off from a US battleship at anchor, British efforts concentrated on seaplanes and operating at sea. In addition to the seaplane carriers, smaller warships towed lighters from which seaplanes were launched.

The first raid was at Cuxhaven in December 1914. Other seaplanes provided reconnaissance for the fleet. However the Navy was looking for ways of launching aircraft more rapidly. At the time of the Battle of Jutland in 1916, three seaplane carriers were attached to the Grand Fleet. However for various reasons only one was able to put to sea, and only one aircraft was present at the clash of the fleets. The day after the battle a German Zeppelin overflow the fleet.

The Zeppelin was too high for the fleet's guns, so they tried to launch a seaplane. However, in those days it took thirty to forty minutes to stop the ship, lower the aircraft into the water, get the engine started, and take off. The Zeppelin had departed the scene before the aircraft could intercept it.

The Admiralty took note. What if there had been an enemy fleet being directed by the Zeppelin? What if the Zeppelin dropped bombs? A solution was sought to the problem of getting aircraft into the air rapidly. The solution was to put a platform over the forward guns on cruisers, and launch when a Zeppelin was sighted. The first success against a Zeppelin was later in 1916, by an aircraft launched from HMS Yarmouth.

Other successes followed but it was only possible to launch one aircraft at a time. The next step was to convert HMS Furious to remove her forward armament, with a hangar to carry multiple aircraft. Aircraft were launched when she steamed into the wind.

It was considered desirable to land aircraft on deck, and experiments started in 1917. Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning did the first landing aboard a moving ship. The following day he was killed trying to repeat it - flying around the superstructure caused air turbulence and he was lost overboard with his aircraft.

Furious was refitted to remove her after armament. Separating launch and recovery areas improved safety, and the first carrier operations took place during the war.

Experiments at the National Physical Laboratory showed that a flush deck was needed. Whilst plans were made to refit Furious after the war, the next carrier was being constructed with a flush deck. HMS Argus was commissioned at the end of 1918. She was too late to see service during the war, but she was used for many experiments and later gave sterling service during the Second World War.
 
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Japanese got one commissioned first, IJN Hōshō, 1922.

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How was 1922 before 1918? The first carrier built with a flush deck was HMS Argus.



Do you mind? That was all from memory. I can remember the generalities of what happened and why but would need to look up details.

Some of us can remember things without needing Google.
Apparently Hosho was purpose built as a aircraft carrier not converted to one
 
Apparently Hosho was purpose built as a aircraft carrier not converted to one

Possibly - but Argus was converted whilst being built and only just missed the First World War. Furious had been converted (partly - using the knowledge they had at the time) in 1917 and flew operational missions in 1918.
 
I'd argue that the Seaplane Tenders of WW1 vintage weren't Aircraft Carriers in the accepted sense. Prior to Argus and the conversion of Furious the Carrier didn't really exist.

By any reasonable definition a Carrier permits the launching and successful landing using a deck.
Otherwise you'd have to include any larger naval ship that carried a seaplane with catapult launch as a Carrier.
 
I'd argue that the Seaplane Tenders of WW1 vintage weren't Aircraft Carriers in the accepted sense. Prior to Argus and the conversion of Furious the Carrier didn't really exist.

By any reasonable definition a Carrier permits the launching and successful landing using a deck.
Otherwise you'd have to include any larger naval ship that carried a seaplane with catapult launch as a Carrier.

True - which is why HMS Furious is normally considered to be the first. HMS Argus is credited as the first flattop. However this thread is about the steps that led to a ship with a flush deck.

The seaplane carriers and cruisers that launched Sopwith fighters from platforms were stepping stones - but they also deserve recognition in their own right. The aircraft they launched did reconnaissance, bombed land targets, shot down Zeppelins, and carried out a torpedo attack against an enemy ship as early as 1915.
 
Possibly - but Argus was converted whilst being built and only just missed the First World War. Furious had been converted (partly - using the knowledge they had at the time) in 1917 and flew operational missions in 1918.

all rather moot as it entered service after the Royal Navy lost control of carrier aviation, and as as a result, the RNs carriers never contributed to the development of the capability and stayed stuck firmly in 1918.

all the interwar work at developing carrier aviation as we know falls at the feet of the USN and IJN, with the USN the undisputed experts in the field.

The USN wrote the book, we adopted their model from 1943.
we did nothing in the interwar period to explore carrier aviation or develop it as a primary offensive tool.

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all rather moot as it entered service after the Royal Navy lost control of carrier aviation, and as as a result, the RNs carriers never contributed to the development of the capability and stayed stuck firmly in 1918.

all the interwar work at developing carrier aviation as we know falls at the feet of the USN and IJN, with the USN the undisputed experts in the field.

The USN wrote the book, we adopted their model from 1943.
we did nothing in the interwar period to explore carrier aviation or develop it as a primary offensive tool.

Amazon product ASIN 178039392X

Rubbish, or are you electing to ignore the attack from Ark Royal that did for the Bismarck's steering allowing the fleet to catch her and the significant damage done by Illustrious air wing at Taranto to the Italian fleet, both of which happened years before the USA even entered the war...

RN and USN carrier doctrines differed significantly as they had vastly different requirements and operational areas. The USN designed their carriers with an eye to the Pacific, RN were largely aimed at North Sea and Med.
Air assets varied hugely too with many factors driving them, the USN had several years longer to get their asses into gear, no bombing of their factories and shipyards, no shortage of materials and no supply chain prone to being torpedo attacked by Uboats, not forgetting the UK had to concentrate heavily on land based aircraft for defence and bombing raids so there wasn't a lot of capacity kicking about for Naval aircraft.

I'm not going to get embroiled in a pointless argument with you as you'll just go off on one like you did on the Channel Dash thread where you also wrote utter bollards.

@Yokel Returning to thread. I'm of the opinion that Seaplane Tenders weren't really part of the Carrier evolution, more an evolutionary dead end that died off. In my opinion (happy to be corrected) it really started with the conversion of Furious foredeck then went on from there.
 
Other attempts against the zeppelins involved towing Thames river barges around the North Sea. The had been boarded over to give a flat top (very low to the water) from which they launched fighters, I think the main one was the Sopwith Pup. This operation was known as the spiders web, I believe it was found to be effective.

This is only my guess, but I think this was a key part of the development towards the flat top as we know it: They had already found the limitations of the various temporary structures added on to Cruiser gun turrets or the cut down for and aft decks a la Furious(?). It seems to me to be a natural progression to take the clear deck idea from the Thames barges, raise the level and add an engine etc etc

Rather than starting from scratch they took an incomplete ship and modified it. HMS Argus was the result, taken from what had been started as a cruise liner intended for Italy.
 

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