Aircraft carrier

“ Thousands of members of the United States Armed Forces have served the Nation aboard aircraft carriers in war, peace, and times of crisis. (b) Sense of Congress.— It is the sense of Congress that— (1) United States aircraft carriers are premier sea-based power projection platforms and have served the Nation's interests in times of war and peace, adapting to the immediate and ever-changing nature of the world for over 90 years; and (2) aircraft carrier contributions and heritage should be celebrated. ”

“ For over 70 years, aircraft carriers have been employed in every major and many smaller conflicts, including World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Lebanon, Libya, Operation Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the fight against terrorism. (8) The United States Navy's aircraft carriers are a cornerstone of the Nation's ability to project its power and strength. (9) When aircraft carriers sail the globe they are a statement of national purpose and a symbol of the Nation's industrial strength, competitive edge, and economic prosperity. ”

“ Our air transportation system is the greatest in the world and the primary public carrier in the United States. Moreover, some eighty-five percent of the aircraft in use throughout the world are of United States manufacture, and the free world's seven largest airlines are United States flag carriers. ”

“ Naval aviators performed superbly in World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, and other operations in support of our national security. Today, naval aviators are deployed in all parts of the world aboard our aircraft carriers, other ships, and shore-based naval aviation squadrons. ”

“ In a minute dated the 26th of October 1913 the First Lord of the Admiralty sketches a policy and a programme for the ensuing years. Aeroplanes and seaplanes, he remarks, are needed by the navy for oversea work and for home work. He recommends three new types of machine: first, an oversea fighting seaplane, to operate from a ship as base; next, a scouting seaplane, to work with the fleet at sea; and last, a home-service fighting aeroplane, to repel enemy aircraft when they attack the vulnerable points of our island, and to carry out patrol duties along the coast. ”

“ Some of the most strenuous supporters of the airship as an auxiliary to the aeronautical service are fond of drawing a parallel between the air service and the Navy, the airship being put forward as analogous or comparable to the battleship or battle-cruiser, and the aeroplane to the torpedo boat or destroyer. ”

“ Impossible!” ejaculated the visitor, gaping at the picture.
“I don’t wonder at your surprise,” responded the managing editor, “but that’s exactly what they accomplished in their Ocean Flyer—the largest and highest-powered aircraft ever devised—a vessel capable of carrying six or seven passengers at a consistent velocity of two hundred miles and more per hour; an airship which can be easily operated at a height of eight or ten miles, where the driver of any other machine would either freeze to death or die from lack of oxygen.” ”

“ During the war we have built the largest fleet of airships in the world, in non-rigids we have reached a stage in design which is unsurpassed by any country, and in rigid airships we are second only to the Germans, who have declared that, with the signing of the peace terms, their aircraft industry will be destroyed. ”

“ For example, if the tail plane or flat, finlike surface that projects from the sides of the tail of the body, or fuselage, has too much “incidence,” or, in other words, is slanted at too sharp an angle downward, it has a tendency in flight to lift the rear of the machine and to make it dive. A seaplane, when properly constructed, is so evenly balanced that, when the crane that lifts it off the mother ship holds it suspended in the air, the machine is equipoised like a bird with wings spread in flight. ”

“ The White City, 285 U.S. 195, 52 S.Ct. 347, 76 L.Ed. 699. But though a contract carrier, the tug may as effectively command the market and have as complete control of the tow and cargo as any common carrier. ”

“ Very little had been done to provide for the co-operation of aircraft with the fleet at sea. The Mayfly mishap had left us unsupplied with airships of the necessary power and range for naval reconnaissance, nor were the means at hand (p. 359) to enable seaplanes to do scouting work for the fleet. In December 1912 a design for a specially constructed seaplane-carrying ship had been submitted by the Air Department after consultation with Messrs. ”

“ The aeroplane and the air-ship are recent accessions to the list of fighting craft. Their rôle in naval warfare cannot yet be defined, because the machines themselves have not yet reached an advanced stage of development, and their probable performance cannot be forecast. There is no doubt, however, in the minds of naval men that the rôle of aircraft is to be important and distinguished. ”

“ There is a strong probability that the airship, rather than the airplane, may prove to be the great aerial liner of to-morrow. The large airship of the Zeppelin type, traveling at greater speed than the fastest express train, and carrying a large number of passengers and a heavy cargo, is apt before long to become the deadly rival of the steamship. A voyage across the Atlantic in such an airship would be far shorter, safer and pleasanter than in the finest of the ocean vessels. ”

“ Moderate dimensions in store- and coal-carriers would prove convenient, not only because it would facilitate taking in stores and coaling, if all the squadron were assembled at one place, but also if part were at one place and part at another. Division into several vessels, instead of concentration in a few, would give great flexibility to the system of supply. A single very capacious cargo-carrier might have to go first to one place and supply the ships there, and then go to supply the remaining ships lying at another anchorage. ”

“ The delivery of seaplanes for training purposes has been sufficient to more than meet the requirements. The training of personnel and providing of stations and equipment to carry out this training had expanded sufficiently so that the output of pilots, observers, mechanicians, and men trained in special branches was keeping abreast or ahead of requirements.
The navy aircraft factory produced aircraft valued at $5,435,000 up to the time the armistice was signed. It had completed, ready for shipment, 183 twin-engine flying-boats, at an average cost of $25,000. ”

“ If we were concerned with the primary function of the aeronautical arm alone, there appears to be no reason to doubt that both kinds of aircraft would have their place; the large air-ship has unquestionable advantages under suitable conditions: cruising at high altitudes over the battlefield, or over or in the rear of the enemy's lines, and reporting to headquarters by wireless every movement of strategic or tactical importance, it might render the most vital service. ”

“ Every country is now engaged in forming its aerial fleets. How far the naval and military branches will coalesce, or how far they will differentiate remains to be seen. The probabilities, at present, all point in the latter direction, and that just as an army is made up of cavalry, infantry, artillery, etc., and a navy of battleships, cruisers, torpedo craft and submarines, so the sky fleets seem destined to consist of groups of different types of machines, each type designed for some special purpose. ”

“ France must be credited with at least eighteen airships of various types—England had only seven—Russia had probably not more than three airships available—Belgium had one airship Austria had not less than three, not more than five airships available—Germany had twenty three airships of the rigid, semi-rigid, and non-rigid type. ”

“ Sir Edward Harland
The place of the old cargo boat was in course of time taken by the so-called “tramp,” the modern [Pg 31] cargo carrier—a good wholesome ship, a large carrier, with sufficient power to take care of herself in all weathers. With modern machinery a tramp can go to the ends of the earth without replenishing her coal supply. One remarkable change has taken place which would have shocked the shipowners of fifty years ago; steamers no longer carry sails and the tendency is to do away with masts. The “standard” ship has only one mast, which is only used for signalling. ”

“ Within a year the flying personnel of the navy had grown to be twenty times greater than it was when we went to war, and where a year ago we had one training-school, we now have forty naval aviation-schools.
The navy has not only strained every nerve to turn out aviators and to produce airplanes, but the development of improved types of planes has not been overlooked, and we now have abroad several fine types of seaplane as well as airplane. The seaplane is merely an airplane [Pg 232] with pontoons, It starts from the ground or from the deck of a vessel. ”

“ The large airship, even should it be found to be of greater military or naval importance than suggested in the present volume, is scarcely likely to be better situated, and suffers from the not inconsiderable disadvantage of requiring accommodation of an elaborate and expensive kind. ”

“ It is the duty of the carrier to see that his barge is capable of resisting these forces without subjecting the carge to injury. She must be so tight that the water will not reach the cargo, so strong that these ordinary applications of external force will not spring a leak or sink her, so sound that she will safely carry the cargo in bulk through these ordinary shocks to which she must every day be subjected. If she is capable of this she is seaworthy; if she is not, she is unfit for the navigation of the river. ”

“ Naval aviation is a specialized problem. It involves not only the relatively simple problem of flight operations with aircraft, but also combined with this are the more complex problems of utilizing aircraft under the practical conditions of naval warfare. Planes must be used offensively and defensively in naval manoeuvres a thousand or more miles from a land base. They must operate from surface ships and must be closely coordinated with the plane and manoeuvres of the fleet organization. ”

“ The navy has made every effort to standardize on types of aircraft which are best suited to the needs of the naval service. Planes have been developed and are now in service with the fleet which combine the functions of scouting, bombing and torpedo launching. ”

“ Two new types of aeroplane have been alluded to in the last, preceding paragraph; the fast-flying, quick-climbing racer and the slow-going, heavy-weight carrier. We are of opinion that there should be three types in all for military purposes. Of greatest importance and in greatest numbers we should have the middle-class machines; those capable of staying in the air for at least three hours of continuous flight, while carrying two men and one hundred and fifty pounds extra, of either wireless apparatus or machine gun and ammunition. ”

“ The Navy also developed their own air transport service and operated in a manner similar to the ATC. This group was known as the Naval Air Transport Service or NATS. The Army Air Transport Command operated its own weather stations, radio ranges, and airfields in the same manner as the commercial lines did in peacetime. Planes flew vital war cargo and personnel on systematic airline procedure. Millions of miles were flown daily by planes rushing tons of men and materials to the far-flung battlefronts of the world. ”

“ The airship and aeroplane in the present stage of evolution possess no economic value. True, cross-country cruises by airship have been inaugurated, and, up to a point, have proved popularly, if not commercially, successful, while tentative efforts have been made to utilise the aeroplane as a mail-carrier. Still, from the view-point of the community at large aerial travel is as remote as it was centuries ago. ”

“ A two-seater, with a pilot and mechanic, has flown from Turin to Naples and back, a distance of 920 miles, without stopping! On April 25, 1919, an F-5 U.S. Naval seaplane, carrying four aviators, flew 1,250 miles in twenty-four hours and ten minutes without stopping. A late report from Italy says that a huge triplane, measuring 150 feet, weighing many tons, and driven by three 700 horse-power engines has taken seventy-eight people up for a ride at one time. A piano has been freighted in another aeroplane from London to Paris. ”

“ But the main reliance of the airman must be his compass. Crossing the broad oceans no lighted path is possible, and even in a voyage from New York to Chicago, or from London to Rome good airmanship will dictate flight at a height that will make reliance upon natural objects as a guide perilous. The airman has the advantage over the sailor in that he may lay his course on leaving his port, or flying field, and pursue it straight as an arrow to his destination. ”

“ Steering was done by means of rudder or the engines, or both, and the airship was kept on an even keel by use of lateral planes. The airship could be brought down by forcing the gas out of the bags into the gas-tanks, thus decreasing the volume, and by increasing the air in the various compartments.
This airship had a flying radius of 800 miles, could climb to 12,000 feet, could carry a useful load of 30 tons, and could remain in the air for 50 hours. ”

“ TYPES OF MODERN AIRSHIPS With the new century came the modern military airship—to stay, at any rate, until the heavier-than-air principle of aërial navigation has so developed as to absorb those features of utility the airship has and the aëroplane has not. ”

“ From the war two new methods of transportation have emerged--the aeroplane and the airship. To the business man neither of these is at the present juncture likely to commend itself on the basis of cost per ton mile. When, however, it is considered that the aeroplane is faster than the express train and the airship's speed is double that of the fastest merchant ship, it will be appreciated that for certain commercial purposes both these mediums for transport have their possibilities. ”