WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: How Aircraft Carriers Work: Part Two 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.840 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.760 John in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.799 and held the tech are you? It is time for 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:25.040 a classic tech Stuff episode. This originally published on April eight. 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.840 It is the follow up to last week's classic episode. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.800 This one is titled How Aircraft Carriers Work, Part two. 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:40.120 Enjoy the weight of the structural steal alone sixty tons 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:42.639 just in steel on that ship. That's not including all 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:44.960 the all the aircraft and the people and all the 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.680 other stuff. The total area of the flight deck, I 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:49.680 think we said this already four and a half acres, 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.880 the length of the flight deck one thousand nine ft. 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:54.480 But again, they don't get to use all of that. 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.680 Some of it's for launching, some of it's for recovery. Uh, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:00:59.760 it's it's broken up into different ways. Some of it's 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.639 just storage. The width of the flight deck and it's 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.600 the widest point two hundred and fifty seven ft wide, 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:07.920 which sounds wide, but then again, you've got planes, you've 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.479 got people. You got the pilot house, that pilot house, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.679 the island island. That's right. Pilot house where you come 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.560 up with that it sounds like a restaurant. Well you 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.040 you would technically call it that on a boat, but 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.480 this is significantly larger than a boat. I'm going to 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.319 go down to the pilot house for some shrimp. Okay, 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.840 uh oh, this is interesting. The weight of each anchor, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:36.319 each anchor thirty tons, and in each each link in 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.440 the section of anchor chain weighs three hundred and sixty pounds. 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.120 Massive a couple of people just to lift a Look. 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.560 Each propeller weighs sixty six thousand, two hundred pounds. Each 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:52.520 of the rudders weighs four sorry, forty five point five tons. Yeah, 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.520 that's amazing. Um, all right, how about the storage capacity 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.400 for aviation fuel, which we would assume would be essential 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.960 for something like that. Because they're not making power from 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.280 the the the reactor for the planes, they still have 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.560 to carry fuel for the actual three point three million 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.840 gallons is what they carry? That sure is? I mean 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:14.400 think about that next time you go to the Georgia 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.920 Aquarium and you've got that one million gallon tank. Okay, 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:19.799 number of telephones on board. We're getting into some of 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.480 the funner stuff. Um, funner, more fun the most fun, 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.960 the most fun stuff, it's the bestest stuff is coming up. 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.639 The number of telephones on board twenty five hundred telephones. 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.960 The number of televisions on board three thousand. What are 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:35.640 they doing watching TV? They got a lot of They 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.959 got a ship to run. Now you are occasionally allowed 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.919 a little downtime, and maybe I'm being harsh, I don't know. Anyways, 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.960 you'd be quite the quartermaster. Thousands, a thousand miles of 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.519 electrical cable is on board when each one of these ships. Um, 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.359 let's see, let's go down to some of the other stuff. Um. 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.560 Number of dentists on board five ye five dentists. So 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:01.960 you gotta have that if you have thousands of people 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.680 actually do have dental offices aboard. They carry enough food 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:12.399 to feed six thousand people for seventy days. That's that's 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.160 that's eighteen thousand meals a day. Yes, that's right, because 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.960 you're multiplied by three eight thousand meals, and you're right, 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.360 that's exactly right. So the amount of mail that's processes 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.600 on board from you know, from the post office, one 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.519 million pounds of mail goes to all these people throughout 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.359 the throughout the year. Um, let's see number of medical 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.359 doctors on board, and this is actually surprisingly low six 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.520 six considering yeah that you're that's like one per thousand. 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.640 That's that's a pretty low, right, How about just two more? 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.240 To wrap it up here, the number of haircuts that 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.480 they that they give every week fifteen hundred a week. 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:53.080 But there's only one barbershop, so that that that dramatic 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.440 to be fair, Come on, haircut aboard a navy vessel 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.360 often or involves a pair of electric clippers and not much. Yeah, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:02.880 that wasn't as fun as I thought it was, No, no, no. 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.160 But but another another one to think about is that 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:10.360 you've got about people who are part of the air 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.520 wing aboard the vessel. Now, the air wing, that's all 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:19.000 the people necessary for the flying and main main maintaining 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.920 of aircraft. So it's not just the pilots, it's also 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.040 the crew that that the flight cruise, the maintenance cruise, 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.760 that sort of thing. Then you've got another three thousand 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.520 who are the ship's company. They're the ones who keep 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.159 the ship running and have their own jobs aboard there, 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.120 including people who are super secret like the people who 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:41.120 maintain the nuclear reactors, who even aboard ships end up 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.960 being almost legendary because you don't necessarily know who it 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:49.600 is who works on that duty. That it's not always 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.080 something that is common knowledge aboard ship. There's a there's 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:58.599 an amazing and truly amazing ten hour documentary series that 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:03.599 PBS did called Carry, where they follow a bunch of 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.960 sailors aboard the U s S. Nimits, the lead ship 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:13.200 of the Nimitz class aircraft carrier, and they talk about 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.039 their roles aboard the ship, their decisions of going into 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.600 the Navy, when it's like living aboard this kind of thing. 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:26.919 It follows a deployment during the wars in Afghanistan, and 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.280 so it actually follows these people for a really long 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:34.000 time and it's fascinating. And one of the things they 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.839 talked about is how, yeah, I don't think I've ever 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.760 met anyone who works in the nuclear reactor area, or 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.120 if they do, they don't. Yeah, they don't say, which 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.080 is kind of interesting. I like that. I like that 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:50.480 that secretive element too. Yeah. So it's it's really again, 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.360 it's it's a very specific kind of world. And the 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:57.800 the crew quarters I had referred to the beds, are 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.040 referred to as racks. You have a rack of of 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.000 you know, and the racks are tiny. I mean, I 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.080 don't know if you've seen pictures or video of it, 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:09.080 but they there's barely enough space for you to climb 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.800 in to get into your little bed. And they are 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.599 stacked three to uh to a section, so you've got 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.080 a lower bunk of middle bunk in an upper bunk. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.159 All of these are, like I said, there's just enough 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.560 clearance for you to climb in essentially. Um. And in fact, 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:28.279 I watched the video of a guy getting in one 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.000 for the first time and he's like, I'm sure I'm 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.960 going to get better at this. This was the top 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.160 one he did. He have a bunch of like bruises 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.920 on his forehead. Yeah, I had a couple of lumps, 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.680 you know here there uh. And you have like a 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.080 tiny locker and maybe a foot locker to keep your 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.560 belongings in otherwise, you know, and you're just sharing this 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.400 tiny space, and it might be a lot of people 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.960 sharing a relatively small amount of living space, including a 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.760 lot of people sharing one bathroom. I mean, it's well, 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.719 it's no cruise ship. And you know, even even if 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:01.600 you do go on a cruise ship, oftentimes you'll you'll 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:03.000 get into your room and you realize like, well, this 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.200 is a pretty small room, but you've got it pretty 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.680 plush compared to the military. It's luxury compared to the military. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.480 So yeah, really really an amazing piece of technology. Now 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.840 I'm gonna go through a little bit more about the 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:21.680 the various aircraft classes that exist, the types of aircraft 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.520 carriers that have existed in the United States history, and 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.000 then I think we can conclude by talking a little 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:31.400 bit about the the Forward class of super carrier that 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.960 is soon to be part of the United States Navy 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.560 and how it has a couple of interesting, interesting new 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:45.280 technological improvements. UM that might surprise you because it's not 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:47.920 it's not necessarily it's not that it's bigger. It's not 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.480 that it's not bigger than the nimits really um. And 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.160 it's not that it's necessarily faster, or that it's able 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:59.920 to carry a significantly larger UH component of aircraft. It's 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.960 more about how it's more efficient and it needs fewer 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.360 people aboard it, which is kind of cool. So, going 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.760 back to the earliest days, the first aircraft carrier that 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.280 the United States had was referred to as a Langley 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.720 class aircraft carrier. It was the USS Langley. If you 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.200 hear something class, that means that the name of the 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.240 class is generally the name of the lead ship of 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.040 that class, and then other ships in that class were 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.800 built as using the first one as a reference point, 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.200 like that's the model, and then all the other ships 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.800 are going to be built based on that, largely because 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.280 manufacturing processes at this stage mean that we can actually 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.880 make copies of stuff. So there might be a dozen 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.280 Langley class ships out there. There could could have been, yeah, 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.640 I understand, But then but the first one was named 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:52.959 the Langley. Yes, got it. So in this case it's 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.200 a single ship class, meaning that there was only one 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.440 ever made is a bad example in my part, but 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.800 but only because we're talking about the very first one. 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.600 Um it was. It was a commission in nineteen twenty 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.360 two as an aircraft carrier. However, that's not how the 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.280 Langley got got her start, And of course we refer 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.200 to ships as ladies. So she had a previous life 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.920 as a collier, which is a type of bulk cargo ship. 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.520 So she was converted from cargo ship to aircraft carrier. 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:26.880 She was originally launched as a cargo ship in nineteen thirteen. No, boy, 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.240 she the conversion process began in nineteen twenty lasted two years. 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.319 She was recommission in nineteen twenty two, and she on 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:40.160 a wooden deck. Right, yeah, she was she She did 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.440 not have all the amenities of a modern aircraft carriers. 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.559 She was slow. She was only capable of traveling at 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.320 fourteen knots, which is less than half of what we're 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:52.560 talking about with the super carriers these days. I could 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.320 that's a it's a huge problem if you're only going 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:00.400 fourteen knots because you were not able to generate amount 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.959 of air speed that airplanes would really need to take off. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.760 So it was not not This is one of the 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.320 reasons why the Langley is the only one in her class. 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.720 Um or was the only one, I should say. Now, 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.240 there was a captain in the Navy who ended up 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.880 taking control of the Langley. Uh He was given her 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.320 command and ended up establishing a lot of the handling 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:30.320 procedures that became standard operating procedure on aircraft carriers after that. 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.319 His name was Captain Joseph Reeves. He would eventually rise 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.520 to the rank of admiral. Uh so a lot of 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.880 the things that ended up being used every day on 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.160 aircraft carriers. Were that they were established because Reeves put 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.160 those practices into as policy. He said, this is the 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.520 way we're going to do things. Um. Now, the Langley 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.080 was damaged by Japanese dive bombers in nineteen forty two 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:59.360 and the surrounding US ships were forced to scuttle the Langley, 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:04.439 so she was sunk by by US forces on purpose. Next, 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:08.480 we have the Lexington class, named after the USS Lexington 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.680 that was commissioned in nineteen seven. Uh. It was originally 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:16.960 a battle cruiser, not an aircraft carrier. Strange, so the 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.760 first two were not necessarily they didn't start out life 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.760 as an air rack exactly. Uh. And there were two 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.520 ships in the Lexington class, so really the first three 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.640 aircraft carrier started as something else. Now here's the interesting 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:33.600 thing about why we converted. We being the United States, 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.320 converted the battle cruiser into an aircraft carrier. So you 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.360 may have heard of things like a disarmament treaties. This 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.640 is not a new concept. This does not just refer 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.080 to the nuclear age. It goes back further back in 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.880 the old days, like the nineteen twenties. The big weapons 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.839 were these giant navy ships, and so there was a 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:58.600 treaty signed, the Washington Naval Treaty of nineteen twenty two, 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:03.560 which placed strict limitations on how many warships a nation 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:08.040 would be allowed by international law to have. If the 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:12.480 United States built to battle cruisers or actually, i'm sorry, battleships, 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.560 they weren't even they weren't battle cruisers. Now they were 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.240 battle cruisers. So they built two battle cruisers, they would 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.760 go over their limit. However, aircraft carriers at the time 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.920 were not considered really warships. They were considered support. So 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.959 instead of building battle cruisers, they just took the the 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.880 bones of the battle cruisers and converted them into aircraft carriers. Yeah. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.079 So this was still in the construction phase. It wasn't 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.840 like they they had them out and sailing and then 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.720 converted them. It was all all from the UH at 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.000 the shipyards. UH. The leadership of the class, the Lexington, 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.320 was sunk in nineteen forty two during the Battle of 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.920 the Coral Sea that Scott mentioned. The other was the Saratoga, 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.800 which made it through World War Two. She was heavily 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.040 damaged in a couple of different battles, but she made 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.199 it through and she was later sunk on purpose during 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:09.600 a test of nuclear weapons. Yeah, yeah, this is interesting. Huh. Yeah, 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.520 it's when you start you decide, Hey, we're just gonna 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.920 we're gonna park this here boat right off the bikini 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.080 and then we're gonna blow it up. Yeah, but you 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:18.880 know what, how else are you going to test that? 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:20.880 How else are you going to figure out how that 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:22.760 ship is going to stand up to an attack like that? 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.560 As it turns out, it doesn't, but it certainly proved 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.000 it in that case. Yeah, so, very interesting fate for 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.480 those two. Then you have the Ranger class, another single 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.520 ship class of ships. So in other words, it's almost 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.520 funny to call it a class when there's only one, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.840 but that's what we do. So she was the commission 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.760 in nineteen thirty four and deep commission in nine. And 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.760 this is the first ship that was built to be 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.440 an aircraft carrier. Um. She was only seven hundred thirty 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.920 ft long or two two point five meters. I say, oh, 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.520 because that's much shorter than today's super carriers. Had a 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.680 full crew complement of two thousand, four hundred sixty one 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.880 people and uh. She was in the Atlantic Ocean during 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.200 World War two. Because she was too slow to be 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.800 deemed useful for the Pacific theater. And now you said 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.840 seven thirty feet, but that was probably sufficient for prop aircraft. 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.800 Oh yeah, yeah. And and again she was built specifically 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.920 with aircraft carrier in mind, so this was not a conversion. 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.840 So she was, you know, designed with those those elements 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.560 in mind. At that point, all we're still talking about 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.400 kind of the straight uh landing takeoff strip that caused 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:42.440 so many problems early on. Next, we have the York 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.720 Town Class, which was commission in nineteen thirty seven. There 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:47.920 were three ships built in this class. Of course, the 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.040 lead ship is the York Town. Um. She was sunk 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:55.040 in nineteen forty two at the Battle of Midway, So 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.720 when we talk about Midway classes, guess what that's named after. Anyway. 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.120 The Hornet was another York Town Class ship. She was 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.840 sunk also in two at the Battle of the Santa 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:11.080 Cruz Islands. The third ship was the original U S. 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.480 S Enterprise. The original well original in the sense of 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.120 aircraft carriers. Um. Now you know what, I don't think 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.440 until this morning, when you were talking about I don't 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.760 think I knew that there were two USS Enterprises. Yeah, yeah, 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.600 so this one is This one was a York Town 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.720 class ship. There would later be an Enterprise class ship 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.480 also known as the U. S. S. Enterprise. So if 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:32.160 you guys have been watching a lot of Star Trek 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.680 and you get confused about which enterprises which, because there's Enterprise, 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.160 you know, a B, C, D, and then of course 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.320 there's the previous ones. Uh that dates back all the 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.360 way to the Navy days, I mean, and of course 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.760 they named the Enterprise after this particular ship. This was 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:52.680 the most decorated ship in US Navy history. It's on 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.440 the bottom of the ocean. Well you can't, you know, 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.680 and no one lives forever going through this list. I mean, man, 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:00.960 there's a bunch of them down there. Yeah. Yeah, Well 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.560 she she actually was. She made it through. She was 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:06.840 not sunk the way the Yorktown and the Hornet were. 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.320 That's something. She was seven seventy ft long or two 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.400 hunts and had a complement of two thousand, two hundred 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:19.280 seventeen crew. Next we get to the Wasp class. It's 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.760 another single ship class, only one ever made. She was 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.640 commissioned in nineteen forty but sunk in nineteen forty two 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.640 during the Guadalcanal campaign by a Japanese submarine. She was 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:33.120 six eight feet long or two hundred ten and she 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.080 carried a crew of two thousand, one hundred sixty seven 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.280 during wartime or around eighteen hundred during peacetime. Now, her 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:44.640 construction came down to politics. This was one of the 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.240 things I thought was fascinating. So you remember that treaty image. 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.000 In the ninety two treaty, it limited the amount of tonnage. 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:55.240 The United States was able to dedicate two aircraft carriers, 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:59.760 but they had fifteen thousand ton tonnage left over after 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:01.720 every thing else, and they said, well, we don't want 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.440 that to go to waste. Let's build a an aircraft 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.320 carrier that will make up this tonnage that we have 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.919 been allotted. And the Wasp was that ship. That's strange 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:17.640 because okay, you're talking, you're talking about at ton aircraft carrier. Yeah, 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:22.000 compared to like the thirty thousand plus sixty yeah, oh yeah, yeah, 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.159 I mean it's it seems like it's so small and 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.439 how how did that even work? It's called a wasp, 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:32.040 very thin metal. Yeah yeah, And she only lasted two 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.080 years before she was sunk. We'll be back with more 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:50.600 about aircraft carriers after this quick break. Now, now we 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.800 get into one of the like what was the backbone 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.520 of the United States Navy during World War Two. That's 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:03.200 the Essex class of aircraft carriers commission in nineteen forty two. 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:05.840 There was also an extended bowel variation. The bow is 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.240 the front end of the ship. There was an extended 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.440 bow variation that was commissioned in nineteen four. There were 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.119 twenty four ships built in the Essex class. There were 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.760 another eight that had been planned but were canceled before 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:21.440 they could be built. Uh So this was the most 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:25.080 plentiful of them. Out of those twenty four, fourteens saw 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.200 combat during World War Two. Not a single one was sunk. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.840 That's impressive. So all of them made it through World 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:37.080 War two. Uh. They range because there's an extended vowel version. 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:39.199 They ranged from about eight hundred twenty feet which is 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.040 almost two to eight feet which is about two hundred 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.400 seventy You know, that kind of makes sense though, because 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.439 we were talking about the role reversal and how you 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.800 know that became the primary player then the aircraft carrier 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.560 was during World War two, so they when they went out, 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.400 you know, these fourteen ships that went out and saw 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.000 saw action. They were surrounded by support ships and they 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.400 were protecting them fear sleep, and that's probably the difference. 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.120 That's probably why all four teen made it through that. 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.760 I mean, clearly the biggest danger you you face there. 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:10.720 I mean, there are plenty of dangerous lots of them, 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.680 but the biggest one would be submarines because those would 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:15.240 be the hardest to detect. Now, a lot of the 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.240 aircraft carriers, in fact, all aircraft carriers to my knowledge, 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:23.080 have anti submarine um UH strategies where they deploy what 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.520 is essentially a decoy that makes a lot of noise, 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.199 so a submarine ends up focusing on that. Torpedoes go 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.719 towards that as opposed to going to the actual aircraft carrier, 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:33.960 so you don't want to make a lot of noise. 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.840 Then you have Independence Class commission in ninety three. This 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:43.280 was another conversion. These were light aircraft carriers. They were 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:49.360 conversions of Cleveland class light cruisers. So if you look 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:53.600 at the list of Independence class ships, you'll see that 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:58.000 they have multiple names because they had already had a 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:01.280 life as a light cruiser but now had been converted 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.480 into aircraft carrier. And they got named a new name 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:09.440 in that case. Yeah, that's weird because sailors generally think 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.800 that it's bad luck to rename a ship points called 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:13.640 it something, But I guess it was technically a different 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:18.280 ship by then. Anyway, cruisers are small to medium sized warships. 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.920 They usually act as fleet support. And World War two, 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:24.040 you the United States had need of a lot more 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.160 aircraft carriers, but they are expensive, they take a lot 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.919 of time to make, so there weren't a whole lot 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.520 of options. The best option was to convert stuff that 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:37.159 they already had into aircraft carriers rather than have to 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.440 build new ones. Makes sense, Yeah, it makes sense. Um, 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:45.280 So nine ships were converted ultimately in this way. Now, 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.480 next we have the Midway class, which was commissioned in 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.119 There were three of these. They were longer than the 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.240 Essex class. The leadership of the class. The Midway remained 0:20:55.240 --> 0:21:02.520 in service until nineteen two too. Not a bad not 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.840 a bad return on investment is a surprisingly long run. Yeah. 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.119 I mean, if you look at the aircraft that the 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:11.600 United States has depended upon, some of those aircraft have 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.000 been in service for a really long time. But this 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:18.239 is this is truly you know, impressive to me, and 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:22.280 they might have changed a little bit between nine. They 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.000 probably got a couple of refits where they changed changed up. 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.600 Probably you know where Hey, you finally got the compass 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:35.040 to stop wobbling. Um. Yeah, So the last action that 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.640 the Midway saw was an Operation Desert Storm. She took 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:42.000 took part in that, and then, uh, she is now 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.160 a museum in San Diego, California, which is where I 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:48.880 got to. Is the case with with several of these Yeah, 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.520 a lot of these aircraft carriers are a lot and 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:53.840 I'm not mentioning all of them by name because obviously 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.399 that would We're gonna be running super long if I 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.280 did that. But a lot of them are now museums 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.679 in various local Asians. Some of them are in the 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.600 process of being converted into museums for some places. Um, 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.160 it's a great use for them. Yeah, it's really it's 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.240 fascinating to really get an actual look at what the 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.480 living conditions are like, to see these racks and see 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:18.520 how tiny those bunks are, and just think, like anyone 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.720 who hasn't served time on board a ship, uh you know, 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.520 I had had had any service board a ship like that. 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:27.960 It really kind of gives you a new appreciation for 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:31.720 the sacrifice that the men and women who choose to 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:35.760 do that. You know what they go through, no doubt. Um. Next, 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:38.879 we've got the Saipan class, which was commission in nineteen 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.280 forty six. There were only two ships built in that class. 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:46.120 They were shorter four point six ft long two eight 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.000 meters or so, and they carried a complement of seventeen hundred. 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.320 They were designed to carry forty two aircraft, including twelve bombers. 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.520 They had a relatively short service life because, uh well 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:59.159 they just weren't as useful once we started getting the 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.720 development of the jet engine planes right. They were far 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:05.639 too short for that. So they were converted into command 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:09.400 and communication ships in the nineteen fifties. Um So that 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:11.840 meant that we needed to have a new class of 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:18.439 ship designed specifically to accommodate jet fighters. And here we arrive. 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:21.560 It's like the modern era. Yeah, this is where we're 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:23.480