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Carriers Built Before WW2



The American Carrier program was severely hampered by the Wall street crash and as a result few where built before the war. Despite the fact that they where one of the large scale projects put in place by President Roosevelt to assist the economy.
The USS Langley CV.1 or the 'Covered Wagon' as it was known was America's first airplane/seaplane carrier but was a converted coal transport (where its nickname came from), not a true carrier and as a result was a travesty of a design. The main reason was that her modification was modeled after the British first generation design and was just an experiment. When better carriers where built she was relegated as a aircraft tender, not even a carrier at all.

The Lexington class was once a Battle Cruiser class but the Washington Naval Treaty of Limitations and the London Naval Restriction Treaty meant that this class had to be scrapped, so the Americans had an idea, Conversion, thus saving the large and powerful vessels but funds where not present to do all of them. So the first two, Lexington, and Saratoga which where the furthest in construction where chosen to be CV.2 and CV.3 respectively because it would not cost as much to convert them. These two carriers became the largest converted carriers in Naval history to date.
The next carrier was the Ranger, America's first purpose built carrier, and the only vessel of the class of the same name, she was the result of to many things on too smaller a vessel, resulting in a ship that was generally despised by all who served on her, she was slow, weak and had terrible handling, but perfectly suited for the Atlantic. Her designation was CV.4.
The Yorktown class was the largest American carrier class before WW2, containing 3 carriers, all of revolutionary designs, the Yorktown CV-5, Enterprise CV-6 and Hornet CV-8. These ships where loved by all who served on them as their rugged design proved to be more than a match for the Japanese Carriers.
The Wasp Class was the last Carrier design built before the war, it contained only the one carrier, Wasp CV-7, she like the Essex class was based on the successful Yorktown class, more presumably the Enterprise (second vessel of the Yorktown class).

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