The first aircraft carriers were devised soon after the birth of military aviation during the First World War;
these first types were made from the conversion of other military units and they were poorly efficient. During the Second World War aircraft
carriers emerged as the main power in the sea, unseating battleships from this position. In those frantic years it was still common to
obtain an aircraft carrier from the conversion of military or civilian units, with more or less success. One of the best achieved of these
realizations was the Aquila, obtained from the transformation of the transatlantic Roma.
The Cold War brought the perfectioning of aircraft carriers with angled decks, nuclear propulsion and dimensions never
seen until then in the North American models. The Soviet Navy, until then of discreet characteristics, had to grow to match the power of the new
adversary, bringing alternative ways of understanding aircraft carriers, creating the smaller but very efficient cruiser-carriers of the classes
Moskva and Kiev, heavily armed antiship and antisubmarine units which could operate autonomously and in which the specialized helicopters had
a prominent role. The subsequent Kuznetsov class adopted a conventional aircraft carrier layout but antiship and antisubmarine weapons
would still be present, unlike in western designs.
American aircraft carriers of the NIMITZ class (1972-2006)
American aircraft carrier USS ENTERPRISE in 1969
American aircraft carrier USS HORNET in 1942
American aircraft carrier USS SARATOGA circa 1935
British aircraft carrier HMS ILLUSTRIOUS in 1943
British aircraft carrier HMS EAGLE in 1942
British aircraft carrier HMS ARK ROYAL in 1939
British aircraft carrier HMS FURIOUS in 1918 and 1941
French aircraft carrier BEARN in 1938
French aircraft carrier CLEMENCEAU in 1977
Italian aircraft carrier AQUILA in 1945
Soviet/Russian aircraft carrier ADMIRAL KUZNETSOV (1985)
Soviet/Russian antisubmarine aircraft carrier cruiser KIEV (1972)
Soviet/Russian antisubmarine helicopter carrier cruiser MOSKVA (1965)
Japanese aircraft carrier TAIHO in 1944
Japanese aircraft carrier AKAGI in 1941
Japanese aircraft carrier SORYU in 1936
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