Full Description
First developed in the final years of World War I, aircraft carriers have been the dominant technology in naval warfare since World War II, following the devastatingly effective carrier-borne air raid on the Italian base of Taranto by the British in 1940, and the even more infamous air attack by hundreds of Japanese bombers on the US base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Today, the aircraft carrier is a key component of national navies around the world, offering a mobile aircraft platform that can be used to defend local waters as well as project power to every corner of the globe. Technical Guide: Aircraft Carriers features more than 50 of the most significant aircraft carriers from 1918 to the present, including the World War I-era converted battleship HMS Eagle, through the Japanese carriers Akagi and Kaga that were sunk at the famous Battle of Midway in 1942, to the great nuclear-powered supercarriers USS Enterprise and USS Nimitz of the Cold War era. The book comes up to date with the leading carriers of today, including the HMS Queen Elizabeth, Chinese Liaoning and Indian Vikrant. Illustrated with more than 80 vivid artworks and 40 photographs, Technical Guide: Aircraft Carriers is an essential reference guide for modellers and naval warfare enthusiasts.
Contents
Introduction
CARRIERS OF WORLD WAR I & WORLD WAR II HMS Furious (1917) HMS Argus (1918) HMS Eagle (1924) Akagi (1927) USS Lexington (1927) Kaga (1928) HMS Glorious (1930) Hiryu (1937) USS Yorktown (1937) USS Enterprise (1938) HMS Ark Royal (1938) USS Wasp (1940) CAM and MAC Ships (1941) HMS Audacity (1941) Shokaku (1941) HMS Indomitable (1941) Colossus class (1942) USS Sangamon (1942) Jun'yo (1942) USS Independence (1942) USS Princeton (1943) USS Lexington (1943) USS Intrepid (1943) USS Wasp (1943) Unryu (1943) Taiho (1944) Shinano (1944) USS Midway (1945)
COLD WAR CARRIERS HMS Eagle (1951) USS Forrestal (1955) HMS Hermes/INS Viraat (1959) Clemenceau (1960) USS Enterprise (1961) HMS Fearless (1965) Moskva class (1967) Veinticinco de Mayo (1969) USS Nimitz (1975) Kiev (1975) USS Tarawa (1976) Ivan Rogov (1978) HMS Invincible (1980) USS Carl Vinson (1982) Giuseppi Garibaldi (1985) Principe de Asturias (1988)
MODERN CARRIERS Admiral Kuznetsov (1995) HTMS Chakri Naruebet (1997) HMS Ocean (1998) Charles de Gaulle (2001) USS Ronald R. Reagan (2003) Hyūga-class helicopter destroyer (2009) Mistral (2006) Cavour (2008) Juan Carlos I (2010) Liaoning (2012) HMAS Canberra (2014) Izumo (2015) HMS Queen Elizabeth (2017) USS Gerald R. Ford (2017) Type 002 Shandong (2019) INS Vikrant (2022) Marado (2023) TCG Anadolu (L-400) (2023) Type 003 Fujian (2024) Trieste (2024)
