Supercarriers became the ultimate in aircraft carrier design after World
War II. Naval aviation allows fleets to project mobile power across vast
distances, and these floating cities epitomize this mission design.
The Forrestal class (Forrestal, CV-59; Saratoga, CV-60; Ranger, CV-61
and Independence, CV-62) was the first completed class of US Navy
supercarriers, so-named for their 25 percent size increase over the
World War II-era carriers such as the Midway class, and the strength of
their air wings (80-100 aircraft, compared to 65-75 for the Midway, and
fewer than 50 for the Essex class). Design-wise, the Forrestals were a
huge improvement over their predecessors, being more stable and
comfortable, while maintaining advancements such as the armored flight
decks that had been introduced with the Midway. The Kitty Hawk class was
an improvement on the Forrestal-class designs, and four were built in
the 1960s - Kitty Hawk (CV-63), Constellation (CV-64), America (CV-66)
and John F. Kennedy (CV-67). These were even longer than the Forrestals,
and fitted with advanced defensive weapons systems and an improved
elevator layout. John F. Kennedy, while originally intended as one of
the Kitty Hawk class, received so many modifications during construction
that she essentially formed her own class, and was originally planned to
become the US Navy's first nuclear-powered carrier. This plan never came
to fruition, however, and that honor was left to her successor, USS
Enterprise (CVN-65). The only ship of her class, Enterprise holds
several other distinctions - the longest naval vessel in the world, the
second-oldest commissioned vessel in the US Navy (after the USS
Constitution), and, when retired in 2013, will have served 51 years -
far longer than any other US carrier. All nine of the carriers covered
by this volume are icons, and hold a much-respected place in US naval
history. They are also some of the more well-known vessels outside of
the military, for their long service histories, as well as for some of
the more unfortunate events that seem to follow them - from Kitty Hawk's
infamous 1972 grilled cheese race riot, to the fires that ravaged
Forrestal in 1967 and Enterprise in 1969. Though swiftly superseded,
first by each other, then by the Nimitz class, these vessels were the US
Navy's backbone during the Cold War.
