Yorktown class aircraft carrier
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USS Enterprise, the most famous of this class of ships. This photo was taken on 10 October 1945, en route to New York City | |
| Class | Missing image USN-Jack.png USN Jack |
|---|---|
| Lead Ship: | Yorktown (CV-5) |
| Builders: | Newport News Shipbuilding (CV 5, 6, 8) |
| Number of Ships: | 3 ordered, laid down and commissioned |
| Proceeded By: | Ranger-class aircraft carrier |
| Succeded By: | Essex-class aircraft carrier |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 23,000 tons standard, 25,484 tons full load |
| Armor: | 1.5 in (38 mm) hangar deck, 2.5 to 4 in (64 to 102 mm) belt |
| Length: | 761 ft (232 m) |
| Beam: | 83.25 ft (25.4 m) |
| Height: | 147 ft (45 m) |
| Extreme Width: | 109 ft (33 m) |
| Draft: | 26 feet (7.9 m) |
| Speed: | 32.5 knots (61 km/h) |
| Range: | 15,000 nautical miles (28,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Patrol Endurance: | 75 days |
| Propulsion: | Westinghouse geared turbines; 9 - Babcock & Wilcox boilers connected to four shafts |
| Performance: | 120,000 horsepower (89 MW) |
| Complement: | 2,200 plus air wing |
| Armament: | 8 single 5 inch (127 mm) guns, 4 quad 1.1 inch (28 mm) AA, 24 x .50 cal (12.7 mm) MG (initially) |
| Aircraft: | 80-100 planes |
The Yorktown aircraft carriers were built by the USA not long before World War II in a series of three. Of those all except the Enterprise (CV-6) were sunk during the war. The first two ships, Yorktown and Enterprise, were quickly completed after the lessons learned from operations with the large battlecruiser conversion Lexington class, versus the smaller purpose-built Ranger, taught the Navy that large carriers, rather than small ones, were more operationally flexible and survivable. Thanks to these lessons, the Navy built the new carriers to the largest tonnage (25,000 tons) that the treaties of the time allowed. The ships resulting were large, flexible and powerful, giving the US Navy a five-ship carrier force totaling 134,000 tons, which with the addition of the 20,000 ton USS Wasp brought the US Navy up to the full treaty limit in tonnage. The scrapping of the treaty system in 1937 allowed the US to begin building more carriers, the first of this new carrier program was a repeat Yorktown, Hornet (CV-8). Improvements to the Yorktown design brought about the Essex (CV-9) class.
Except for Enterprise, the entire class had been lost by the end of 1942, with Yorktown sunk at the Battle of Midway in June; Hornet joined the class exemplar on the bottom in September at the Battle of Santa Cruz. Enterprise soldiered on, becoming the most frequently decorated ship of the war. She was put out of action on 16 May 1942 when she was struck in the forward elevator by a kamikaze, destroying the elevator and severely damaging her hangar deck. She was still out of action on V-J Day, and was subsequently fitted out for Operation Magic Carpet, ferrying over 10,000 veterans home from Europe. Stricken from the list in 1959 after multiple attempts to preserve her as a museum and memorial, ex-Enterprise met her fate at Kearny, New Jersey in 1960.
By the end of World War II, Enterprise had been considerably modified, her final displacement was 32,060 tons and her final armament was 8 single 5 in (127 mm) 38 DP, 6 quad 40 mm AA, 8 twin 40 mm AA and 50 single 20 mm AA.
| Yorktown-class aircraft carrier |
| Yorktown | Enterprise | Hornet |
| List of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy |