Yorktown-class aircraft carrier

USS Enterprise
USS Enterprise
Class overview
BuildersNewport News Shipbuilding
Operators United States Navy
Preceded byUSS Ranger
Succeeded byUSS Wasp
Built21 May 1934 - 20 October 1941
In commission30 September 1937 – 17 February 1947
Completed3
Lost2
Retired1
General characteristics
TypeAircraft carrier
Displacement
  • 19,800 long tons (20,100 t) standard
  • 25,500 long tons (25,900 t)) full load
Length
  • 770 ft (230 m) waterline at design draft
  • 809 ft 9 in (246.81 m) length of main hull
  • 824 ft 9 in (251.38 m) overall length
  • 802 ft (244 m) flight deck
Beam
  • 83 ft (25 m) at waterline
  • 109 ft 6 in (33.38 m) width at flight deck
Draft
  • 26 ft (7.9 m)
  • (24 ft 4 in (7.42 m) design draft)
Propulsion
  • 9 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
  • 4-shaft Parsons geared turbines 120,000 shp (89 MW)
Speed32.5 kn (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range12,500 nmi (23,200 km)
Complement2,217
Sensors and
processing systems
SC radar
Armament
Armor
  • Belt: 2.5–4 in (6.4–10.2 cm)
  • Tower: 4 inches (10 cm)
Aircraft carried90
Aviation facilities
  • 2 flight deck catapults
  • 1 hangar catapult
  • 3 aircraft elevators

The Yorktown class was a class of three aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy and completed shortly before World War II, the Yorktown (CV-5), Enterprise (CV-6), and Hornet (CV-8). They immediately followed Ranger, the first U.S. aircraft carrier built as such, and benefited in design from experience with Ranger and the earlier Lexington class, which were conversions into carriers of two battlecruisers that were to be scrapped to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty, an arms limitation accord.

These ships bore the brunt of the fighting in the Pacific during 1942, and two of the three were lost: Yorktown, sunk at the Battle of Midway, and Hornet, sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

Enterprise, the sole survivor of the class, was the most decorated ship of the U.S. Navy in the Second World War. After efforts to save her as a museum ship failed, she was scrapped in 1958.[1][2]

  1. ^ Budge, Kent G. "The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia: Yorktown Class, U.S. Fleet Carriers". pwencycl.kgbudge.com. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  2. ^ "USS Enterprise (CV-6)". National Museum of the U.S. Navy. Retrieved 14 June 2021.