Aircraft Carriers at War

The Japanese navy built a number of air­craft carriers, gaining experience in their use during the nation’s war with China that began in 1937. Japanese carriers led the attack on the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that brought the United States into World War II. The U. S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet’s carriers, which were at sea at the time, escaped damage in this attack, and their aircraft went on to help the United States win the key Pacific air-sea battles of the war. In April 1942 the first U. S. air raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo was made by B-25s launched from the USS Hornet.

After World War II, heavier, faster jets came into naval service. The first jet aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier was a British De Havilland Vampire, which touched down on the HMS Ocean in December 1945. The first U. S. jet plane to operate from an aircraft carrier soon followed, when a McDonnell FH-1 Phantom flew from the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1946. U. S. Navy jets saw combat for the first time during the Korean War, when a Grumman F9F-2 Panther shot down an enemy MiG-15 jet fighter on November 9, 1950.

New aircraft carriers had angled flight decks and steam catapults to help land and launch the new generation of airplanes. The U. S. Navy’s first carrier with an angled flight deck was the USS Antietam (1953). The Navy’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was the Enterprise (1960).

From 1964 onward, naval air power played an important part in the Vietnam War. McDonnell F-4 Phantom jets,

О The U. S. Navy’s Nimitz-class carriers have angled deck landing areas, visible here on the USS Harry S. Truman. The angle allows aircraft that are unable to stop before the end of the landing area to become airborne again for another try without the risk of hitting anything on deck.

flying from the USS Midway, scored the first combat victories against MiG-17 fighters in June 1965. Carrier-based aircraft also took part in the Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War of 2003.