Forrestal class aircraft carrier

The "Forrestal"-class aircraft carriers were a four-ship class designed and built for the United States Navy in the 1950s.

Design

The "Forrestal" class was the first completed class of "supercarriers" of the Navy, so called because of their then-extraordinarily high tonnage (75,000 tons, 25% larger than the World War II-era "Midway" class), full integration of the angled deck (USS|Forrestal|CV-59|2 and USS|Saratoga|CV-60|2 were laid down as axial deck carriers and converted to angled deck ships while under construction; USS|Ranger|CV-61|2 and USS|Independence|CV-62|2 were laid down as angled deck ships and had various minor improvements compared to the first two), very large island and most importantly their extremely strong air wing (80-100 jet aircraft, compared to 65-75 for the "Midway" class and less than 50 for the "Essex" class). Compared to the "Midway" class, the "Forrestal"s were convert|100|ft|m|-1 longer and nearly convert|20|ft|m|0 wider abeam, resulting in a far more stable and comfortable aircraft platform even in very rough weather. When commissioned, the "Forrestal" class ships had the roomiest hangar decks and largest flight decks of any carrier ever built. Because of their immense size they were built to a new, deep-hulled design that incorporated the flight deck into the hull (previous American design practice was to design the flight deck as superstructure). This was not related to the British "armoured" carriers (which were difficult to operate and had heavily restricted air wings), but grew out of the requirement for such a very large carrier. The "Midway" class ships sat very low in the water and were poor sea boats through their long careers; they were very wet forward and their aviation characteristics were poor. The deeper "Forrestal" hull allowed the ships more freeboard and better seakeeping. The "Forrestal"-class carrier was the first steel-hulled capital ship to be designed without armor.

"Forrestal"-class ships were the first examples of supercarriers and thus not quite a perfected design; their elevators in particular were poorly arranged for aircraft handling. The portside elevator, a relic of the original axial-deck design, was almost completely useless, as it was located at the fore end of the angled deck, in the landing path as well as the launch path of aircraft from the #3 and #4 catapults. The subsequent "Kitty Hawk" class moved the portside elevator to the aft end of the angle and reversed the position of the island and the second starboard elevator, vastly improving aircraft handling. The sponson-mounted guns suffered from poor range and complicated firing arcs, and were located in very wet and thus nearly useless positions in the bow and stern; they were removed after only a few years and replaced by missiles and CIWS weapons. In "Forrestal", the aft guns lasted until the fire in 1967, then were removed and eventually replaced by missiles in the mid-70s.

The original design of the "Forrestal" class ships would have had a very small, retractable island; this design had numerous problems (the mechanism to raise and lower the island was never perfected before the angled deck was added to the design) and smoke fouling of the deck was expected to be a severe problem due to lack of adequate venting. The redesign to an angled deck allowed a very large island, much larger than on previous carriers, giving unprecedented flexibility and control in air operations.

As of 2006, all four ships have been struck from the Navy Vessel Register. Ex-"Forrestal" and ex-"Independence" are slated to be sunk as targets due to their very poor material condition, while ex-"Saratoga" and ex-"Ranger" are on donation hold as potential museum ships.

Vessels

Gallery

References