Yorktown class aircraft carrier
Encyclopedia : Y : YO : YOR : Yorktown class aircraft carrier
 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 | |
|---|---|
| Lead Ship: | Yorktown (CV-5) |
| Builders: | Newport News Shipbuilding (CV 5, 6, 8) |
| Number of Ships: | 3 ordered, laid down and commissioned |
| Preceded By: | USS Ranger (CV-4) |
| Succeeded By: | Essex-class aircraft carrier |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 19,900 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 class aircraft carriers consisted of three carriers built by the USA not long before World War II. They bore the brunt of early action in that war, and the sole survivor of the class was to become the most accomplished ship in the history of the U.S. Navy.
The lessons learned from operations with the large battlecruiser conversion Lexington class in comparison with the smaller purpose-built Ranger had taught the Navy that large carriers, rather than small ones, were more operationally flexible and survivable. As the result of this experience, the U.S. Navy built the Yorktown (CV-5) and Enterprise (CV-6), commissioned in 1937 and 1938 respectively. These were fast and versatile carriers, able to carry and operate over 80 warplanes, almost as many as the much larger Lexington class. With the addition of the 14,700 ton Wasp (CV-7), a smaller version of the class, the U.S. Navy used up its full 135,000 ton Washington Naval Treaty limit of aircraft carrier tonnage. The scrapping of the treaty system in 1937 allowed the US to begin building more carriers, and the first of this new carrier program was another Yorktown class, Hornet (CV-8), commissioned in 1941. 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; half-sister Wasp torpedoed and sunk in September, and Hornet lost in September at the Battle of Santa Cruz. Enterprise, for a time the only operational carrier in the South Pacific, soldiered on, and particpated in most of the principal actions of the Pacific War. She became the most frequently decorated ship of the war. She was put out of action on 14 May 1945 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. The Yorktown class had proved to be vulnerable to torpedoes and while undergoing repairs in late 1942, Enterprise also received an extensive refit, which included an anti-torpedo blister that significantly improved her underwater protection.
| Yorktown-class aircraft carrier |
| Yorktown | Enterprise | Hornet |
| List of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.