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10 incredible moments in the storied 108-year history of aircraft carrier aviation
10 incredible moments in the storied 108-year history of aircraft carrier aviation
Ryan PickrellNov 14, 2018, 22:41 IST
An F/A-18F Super Hornet jet flies over the USS Gerald R. Ford as the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier tests its new launch and flight arrest systemsUS Navy/Erik Hildebrandt/Handout/Reuters
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Exactly 108 years ago Wednesday, carrier aviation was born from an experiment that would eventually evolve into one of the most important aspects of modern warfare.
Here are some impressive moments in the history of carrier aviation.
Eugene Burton Ely flew a Curtiss Pusher biplane off the deck of the USS Birmingham on November 14, 1910, marking the first time the Navy had launched a plane from a warship, which came only seven years after the Wright Brothers' first flights. This moment can be considered the birth of carrier aviation.
The following year, on January 18, 1911, Eugene B. Ely landed on the USS Pennsylvania, completing the first successful landing on a stationary warship.
British Royal Naval Air Service pilot Edwin H. Dunning successfully landed an aircraft on a moving warship, the HMS Furious, for the first time on August 2, 1917. He died five days later on a follow-up attempt, demonstrating the challenge of landing on a ship at sea.
The first plane specifically designed to take off from an aircraft carrier and drop torpedoes was the Sopwith Cuckoo. The plane, which lacked the ability to land on a carrier, completed its first flight in June 1917. As this technology evolved, it would play a critical role in future battles.
The Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber, unquestionably the most important carrier-based aircraft in the Pacific Theater of World War II, entered service with the US military in 1940. The bomber carried a 1,000-pound bomb and was responsible for sinking 300,000 tons of enemy shipping, everything from submarines to battleships to carriers, reportedly more than any other Allied aircraft.
Sixteen B-25 Mitchell medium bombers took off from the deck of the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942 for an attack on Tokyo. The aircraft that took part in the "Doolittle Raid" conducted the first raid on the Japanese home islands.
US Navy Lt. Edward “Butch” O’Hare became the first naval aviator to win the Medal of Honor for defending the American aircraft carrier USS Lexington from a wave of Japanese heavy bombers on February 20, 1942. He took on a formation of nine Japanese bombers, shooting down roughly half a dozen enemy planes. He would later lead the first nighttime mission from a carrier on Nov. 26, 1943. O'Hare was killed during that mission.
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought May 4-8, 1942, was the first naval battle in history in which the two opposing naval surface forces never came within sight of one another, highlighting the true warfighting range of carrier-based fighters and bombers.
On October 30, 1963, a C-130 Hercules pulled off the seemingly impossible, landing on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. There in the North Atlantic, the C-130 became the heaviest aircraft to ever land on an aircraft carrier.
A carrier version of the F-35, the most expensive aircraft in history, landed on an aircraft carrier for the first time in November 2014. Four years later, an American F-35B conducted its first combat operation from the deck of a US Navy amphibious assault ship.
