The USS Lexington (CV-2) was the second aircraft carrier of Lexington
class built by the United States, but the first used operationally; in
fact the first was the USS Langley, but as an aircraft carrier she
served only as an experimental ship. The history of the USS Lexington
was troubled: in fact it was designed in 1916 to be an atypical battle
cruiser, as little armored, but with heavy cannons. Because of the
Washington Treaty of 1922 about the reduction of naval armaments, she
was reclassified and converted into an aircraft carrier, capable of
carrying a flight of 85 aircraft.