Today, the aircraft carrier is the most powerful warship afloat, a vessel that dominates the ocean's surface and can project power far inland. But it was not always this way, and the aircraft carrier has evolved greatly over the last century.

The first takeoff from a ship

The first man to take off from and land on a ship was an American pilot by the name of Eugene Ely. In November 1910, Ely took off from a ramp on the cruiser USS Birmingham, and flew ashore. Two months later, he landed on a platform built onto the cruiser Pennsylvania. In both cases, the ships were at anchor. While the first takeoff from a moving ship took place the next year, the first landing proved elusive. Read more...

It's our usual biweekly open thread. Talk about whatever you want, even if it's not naval-related.

This post's thing of interest is Victory at Sea, a documentary series from the 50s using footage from WWII. The 26 episodes (linked from the Wiki article) cover basically the entire war at sea, and there's a lot of interesting footage of men and ships, as well as a really good soundtrack.

Overhauled posts since last time include Iowa parts six, seven, and eight, Russian Battleships Part 1, and both parts I wrote on mine warfare.

Of the major naval powers, Japan had placed the greatest emphasis on its battleships during the years leading up to WWII. The experience of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars had lead them to conclude that any war with the United States would ultimately be resolved through a Decisive Battle between the battle lines of the two powers. All Japanese war planning centered around this battle, and it is remarkable that they were willing to throw it away and attack Pearl Harbor instead. The idea reasserted itself after the outbreak of war, and even in 1945, after numerous previous "Decisive Battles" had ended in disaster, the Japanese believed that another one could turn the tide.

Yamato running sea trials

12 Japanese battleships fought in the war, spread across five classes. The oldest were the four units of the Kongo class. Originally built as battlecruisers before WWI, all four were thoroughly modernized during the 1930s, being reclassified as fast battleships. Capable of 30 kts and armed with 8 14" guns, they proved very useful ships.¹ Read more...

In my continuing discussion of commercial aviation, it's time to talk about class, specifically class of service.² But first, let’s talk about the planes themselves.

Passenger jets are basically divided into three categories (small to large), regional, narrowbody and widebody.

A United E145 Regional Jet

Regional planes are those with up to ~120 seats, and typically fly between major hubs and distant secondary markets or close tertiary markets. The main players were Bombardier and Embraer, both of which made a range of planes from 70-120 seats, and were trying to move into the narrowbody market. Bombardier pulled out of the market in 2020 after selling the CSeries, now known as the A220 and on the larger end of the regional market, to Airbus, while Embraer has shut down the line for their smaller jets. For various reasons, mostly having to do with union contracts, these are much more popular in the US than in the rest of the world, but that may not continue going forward, and I suspect that the demise of this market may be behind Embraer and Bombardier looking to build larger planes. Seating ranges from 1-2 (one seat on one side of the aisle, 2 on the other) to 3-3 on some of the largest. Read more...

At the end of WWI, the Royal Navy faced a crisis. During the war, it had suspended new capital ship construction except for a handful of battlecruisers, while the American and Japanese building programs had continued to churn out ships that were more modern than the bulk of the British fleet. Worse, the British battlefleet had seen hard war service, and many of the early dreadnoughts were in bad shape and essentially unfit for further service. New battleships would be needed, ships that fully reflected the lessons of the war.

HMS Nelson

The most important of these was the need for an all-or-nothing armor scheme, as developed in the US. The war had seen major improvements in armor-piercing shells, and protecting against them required significantly more armor than previous vessels had. However, the increase in battle ranges gave designers a way out. Previously, the size of citadels had been set by the need to preserve stability and buoyancy if the ends were riddled. At long range, the many hits necessary to riddle the ends would not happen, and the citadel could be shrunk to thicken the armor.³ The British also looked to improve on the 15" gun due to the proliferation of 16" weapons in the American and Japanese navies. They investigated the triple turret, abandoned a decade earlier amid fears of increased mechanical complexity, and the 18" gun under the cover name of 15"/B. Read more...

Last time we looked at the process by which preliminary designs are selected. But what factors go into a preliminary design, and how do the designers balance them?

A plan of Missouri

The first and most important job of a battleship is to float. This means that, per Archimedes' principle, the hull of the battleship will displace an amount of water equal to the ship's weight, and the ship will sink into the water until the volume displaced weighs that much. For the battleship designer, this is not a trivial problem. Most of the components of a battleship; armor, heavy guns, and steam plants, are quite heavy, and the design is limited primarily by its ability to carry weight. Modern warships, on the other hand, are limited by volume available for relatively light systems like computers, radar, and guided missiles. Of course, volume isn't completely irrelevant to battleships. In particular, the area to be armored is often set by the need to protect magazines and machinery, and increases in the volume of these systems can drive up the weight of armor required, assuming thickness is held constant.⁴ This in turn might mean that a bigger ship is required. If speed is to be kept constant, this will require more power. This means more machinery weight and volume, and more armor weight. This cycle can repeat indefinitely, and it is the job of the designer to keep it from happening. Read more...

While I often focus on the battleship as a machine, it would be a mistake to neglect the men who ran them. I've previously talked about life aboard Iowa, but one interesting aspect I did not discuss was the art created by the crew.

A mural in the Chief Petty Officer's⁵ quarters, known as the Goat Locker⁶

There are many pieces of art scattered around the ship. Some of them were in the most public areas, such as the mess decks and wardroom. Read more...

0930, 45 miles off the coast of Scotland. The men of the Grand Fleet peer into the haze hanging over the North Sea, looking for the High Seas Fleet. For the first time since the start of the war, essentially the entire British Fleet is assembled. Not just the Grand Fleet, from Scapa and Rosyth, but also the ships from Dover and Harwich, who had guarded the Channel and fought the vicious inshore war against the German light units based in Belgium. Joining them are a French armored cruiser and two destroyers, and the 6th Battle Squadron from the United States. Every ship is flying as many ensigns as possible, for today is the day the High Seas Fleet comes to be interned.⁷

The High Seas Fleet coming in to be interned

When the Armistice had been signed ten days previously, the plan was to intern the bulk of the German surface fleet in a neutral country.⁸ Norway and Spain both demurred, so it was decided that 10 battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 8 light cruisers and 50 destroyers would steam to Britain and be placed under caretaker crews until they could be disposed of under the final peace treaty.⁹ One battleship and one light cruiser are in yard hands, but the other ships sailed on schedule. One destroyer fell victim to a mine on the journey, but the other 70 ships arrived safely at the rendezvous. Waiting for them are 370 ships and 90,000 men, arranged in two lines to guard the approaching warships. Read more...

It's time for our regular open thread. Talk about whatever you want, so long as it isn't Culture War.

The Naval Institute Press Holiday Sale is here! This is an excellent chance to stock up on naval books for the coming year, as they give 50% off a bunch of books, and free shipping. I've only included items that are specifically on sale, either for Christmas (which runs through 12/14, but was extended a couple times last year) or in their normal "Clear the Decks" clearance. Members get 40% off more books, and the $40 web membership can be well worth it. Shipping is $5.50 for the first book and $3.50 for more books the rest of the year. In the process of making my own list, I also selected a few works that I think would be of interest to readers here. Yes, I do own every single one of these, and there's only a few I haven't read cover to cover.

First, they're selling the History of US Naval Operations in WWII bundle again. This is an excellent series, going into surprising detail on everything the USN did in WWII. I gave a couple sets as presents last year.

Second, a bunch of Norman Friedman stuff is on sale. His seminal US Battleships: An Illustrated Design History, the new British Battleships of the Victorian Era and its sequel British Battleships 1904-1945 are all 50% off. Other works available cheaply include US Submarines Since 1945, Revised Edition, US Aircraft Carriers, Fighters Over the Fleet, and the excellent Network-Centric Warfare. Also, the incredible Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems can be had for only $40.

From other authors we have Nicholas Jellicoe's Jutland: The Unfinished Battle (which formed the basis for my series), Kaigun, on the Japanese Navy, R A Burt's British Battleships 1919-1945, British Aircraft Carriers by David Hobbs, and the superb Nelson's Navy.

Overhauled posts include Iowa parts three, four, and five, Ballistics, US Battleships in World War II, all three parts of The Battleships of Pearl Harbor, and The Battle of Lissa.

When the Korean War broke out, the USS Missouri was the only battleship still in active service with the US Navy. She was President Truman's favorite ship, because she'd been sponsored by his daughter and named after his home state, and he'd kept her active against the advice of the military establishment. Even her grounding on Thimble Shoal was not enough to persuade him to retire her¹⁰ and this proved fortuitous when the Korean War broke out in June of 1950, the North Korean assault sending the South Koreans reeling back to a small corner of the country near Pusan.

Missouri bombarding targets in Korea

When the invasion began, Missouri was on a training cruise. Initially the training schedule continued despite the war, but in August, she was ordered to drop the midshipmen off and hurry to Korea, to support the upcoming invasion of Inchon. On the way, she encountered a hurricane which did enough damage to require a week in Pearl Harbor for repair and swept several helicopters over the side. On a training shoot in Hawaii, a mistake with the fire control system resulted in a constant range going to the guns, which missed the island they were shooting at entirely. Read more...