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Aircraft carrier design involved trade-offs between offensive striking power and defensive survivability. The more carrier tonnage allocated to guns and armor for protection, the less was available for carrying and launching aircraft, the warship's principal weapon.
HMS Pioneer was a Colossus-class aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was modified whilst under construction into an aircraft maintenance carrier. The ship arrived in Australia in mid-1945 to support operations by the British Pacific Fleet against Japanese forces.
In practice, Unicorn proved the value of the concept and two similar support ships, Perseus and Pioneer were converted into aircraft maintenance ships by modifying light aircraft carriers still under construction. [5] Unicorn had an overall length of 640 feet (195.1 m), a beam of 90 feet 3 inches (27.5 m), and a draught of 23 feet (7.0 m) at ...
Details for CVE design is included in the article, Design and capability of aircraft carriers during World War II. The greatest initial need for escort carriers, as with FACs, CAMs, and MACs, was to protect merchant shipping in convoys. Transport aircraft to war zones became a critical function after America entered the war.
Some carrier aircraft served in dual roles, such as fighter-bomber and bomber-reconnaissance aircraft. Carrier aircraft functions. Torpedo and dive bombers attacked enemy warships, transports, merchant ships, and land installations. Fighters accompanied bombers on attack missions, protecting them during interceptions by enemy fighters.
Twenty-one aircraft carriers, all of the attack carriers operational during the era except John F. Kennedy, deployed to Task Force 77 of the US Seventh Fleet, conducting 86 war cruises and operating 9,178 total days on the line in the Gulf of Tonkin. 530 aircraft were lost in combat and 329 more in operational accidents, causing the deaths of ...
Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side, two aircraft lifts 43 feet (13.1 m) by 34 feet (10.4 m), one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires. [1] Aircraft could be housed in the 260 feet (79.2 m) by 62 feet (18.9 m) hangar below the flight deck. [ 1 ]
It became apparent early in the war that control of the air was prerequisite for successful surface action both on land and at sea. [b] [9] For much of the war, Britain and America fought mainly on the seas, [10] [clarification needed] where successful Allied naval operations permitted effective support and reinforcement of troops in North Africa, the Soviet Union, western Europe and the Pacific.