Let’s discuss the apotheosis of naval flexibility: the aircraft carrier. If you’ve ever laid eyes on one of these behemoths in person—or even on screen—their sheer scale is obvious: floating cities, covered in airplanes, missiles, and more gizmos than a Bond villain can scornfully covet. So just how did we move from the rickety biplanes-and-wooden-decks era to our current nuclear-powered, electromagnetic-launching, 100,000-ton leviathans? Buckle up, everyone, because this is a ride through carrier history that’s crazy.
It began with a collier and a dream. In 1922, the U.S. Navy converted the USS Jupiter, a plain collier, and reborn her as the USS Langley—the first American aircraft carrier. She was, to be generous, an “ungainly new ship,” but she revolutionized military aviation. As Air & Space Quarterly summarizes, “The Langley was an experiment to determine whether airplanes could be made to work from ships. Langley demonstrated that it could be done and then taught the U.S.”.
Navy’s first generation of carrier pilots. They spent those early years experimenting—imagine ad-hoc arresting wires, “instrument face” pilots (from crashing into their instrument panels), and a flight deck that looked like a wooden canopy on stilts. But from all that ferment was born the first landing signal officers, the first catapult shots, and a realization that, hey, these flying machines might be able to do something more than just scout out battleships.
Flash ahead to World War II, and the Navy’s unequivocal heavyweight was the aircraft carrier. The battleship brigade had to eat their hats when carriers such as the USS Enterprise and Yorktown spearheaded the charge in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway? That was carrier-based air turning the tables on Japan. At the war’s end, America had an astonishing 101 carriers in commission, ranging from the fearsome Essex-class to the hardy “Jeep” escort carriers. The formula—flat deck, arresting cables, catapults—remained the same, but the quantity was in astronomical figures. Pilots were still signaled in by LSOs paddling frantically, and the “air boss” overhead ran things with a conductor’s flair for the very loud, very high-speed orchestra.
But the sorcery came after the war, when the age of the jet burst like a crack of thunder. Suddenly, those warbirds with propellers were sharing space on deck with “flying blowtorches” (how early jet jocks lovingly called them). The Navy needed to rework everything: fueling up, landing screens, even flight planning when your carrier was a moving target and your fighters drank gas like there was no tomorrow. Step onto the sloping deck—a British innovation that allowed pilots to “bolter” (fly past the wires and come back around again) without crashing into parked planes. The USS Antietam made this test-run an American first, and soon all flattops worth their salt sported that characteristic slope. Add the mirror landing system (the initial “meatball” for aligning landings) and the steam catapult, and you have the master plan for the modern carrier.
The nuclear revolution arrived. If a few weeks on gas was hip, how about never refueling in 20 years? The USS Enterprise, which entered commission in 1961, was the world’s first nuclear-powered carrier, boasting eight reactors (why not do it large?). She was new, costly, and a drama queen, but she demonstrated that nuclear energy was the future. As reported by the World Nuclear Association, “The Enterprise remained in service to the end of 2012,” which is a testament to her longevity.
Then came the Nimitz-class, which optimized operations with only two reactors and a fifty-year design life. The carriers were able to land and take off planes twenty-four/seven, anywhere in the world, without requesting permission for a fuel stop. And then, when you thought it couldn’t get any better, came the Gerald R. Ford class. The new super-carriers are larger, smarter, and more automated, with a crew of 500 to 900 sailors smaller than their Nimitz forebears. The Ford-class is packed with 23 new or enhanced systems, such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS)—a giant railgun for aircraft—and more advanced arrestor gear that’s gentler on jets and pilots.
The Ford-class itself is forward-looking, with sufficient electrical power to operate current technology but also future directed energy weapons (yes, lasers on ships exist). As Naval Technology describes, “The need for an increased sortie rate of 160 sorties daily, peaking to a maximum of 220 sorties daily during times of crisis and heavy air combat, resulted in design revisions to the flight deck.” That’s more aircraft in the sky, more frequently, with less downtime on the ground—just what you’d want when things are heating up.
And so here we are, a century after Langley’s uncertain launch, with carriers that can loft F-35s, drones, and whatever comes next along, all while sipping nuclear power across the world’s oceans. They’re still “cities at sea,” but wiser, faster, and more powerful than ever. The transition from coal-hauler to supercarrier is one of incessant remake, a splash of obstinacy, and a whole lot of American brashness. And for real? I’m not even prepared for whatever the next page has in store.