WEBVTT - How Aircraft Carriers Work: Part Two 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:12.719 Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from dot com. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.640 Hey there, and welcome to text Stuff. If I sound tired, 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.400 it's because I'm recording this intro at the end of 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:24.200 an incredible marathon recording session where I have kidnapped, I mean, 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.120 invited Scott Benjamin of car Stuff to join me and 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:31.000 talk about aircraft carriers. I'm back. Yeah, part two. It's 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:35.400 almost like you've never left. It's almost like I never right, So, 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.000 so yeah, if you listen to our last episode, if 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:39.800 you haven't listened to our last episode, you should listen 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:41.920 to that one first, because that's where we really cover 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.879 the basics of aircraft carriers. And this episode we're going 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.000 to look more at the various types of aircraft carriers, 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.519 sort of the how the history of aircraft carriers in 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:54.160 the United States has unfolded. Yeah. Yeah, the class system, 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:57.080 so the way that they're all designated and the way 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.880 that they the way that the whole evolution of the 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.800 aircraft carriers coming about here in the United States. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.400 especially you know when you get into World War two 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.640 and you and you see how it becomes a pivotal 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.360 UH part of the Navy during World War two and 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.279 then changes again just a few years later as jet 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.120 fighters become a reality. It's really fascinating stuff. So I 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:25.120 hope you enjoy. Now you want to talk about a 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.440 few numbers here, because let's let's please we can do 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:29.800 these numbers and in our articles as big numbers, and 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:31.960 these are big numbers, and some of these will pertain 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:33.360 to what we were just talking about. Others are just 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.440 kind of coming out of nowhere. But um, okay, this 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.800 is talking about the Nimitz class aircraft carrier. So that's 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.680 the current aircraft carrier that is being used by the 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.480 United States Navy that will be eventually replaced by the 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.320 Ford class once that comes online. All right, So the 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.360 total height from keel to mast is two and forty 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.080 four feet. That's as high as the twenty four story building. 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.280 As we mentioned earlier in the podcast. The weight in 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:04.920 full combat mode seven thousand tons. That's that's a lot 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.080 of that, sure is. And I'll go through these quickly 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.040 so we can just get through them. But the weight 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.400 of the structural steal alone sixty thousand tons just in 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.200 steel on that ship. That's not including all the all 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.480 the aircraft and the people and all the other stuff. 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:20.840 The total area of the flight deck. I think we 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.360 said this already four and a half acres. The length 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.200 of the flight deck one thousand, ninety two ft. But again, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.240 they don't get to use all of that. Some of 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.840 it's for launching, some of it's for recovery. Uh it's 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.359 it's broken up into different ways, some of it's for storage. 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.080 The width of the flight deck and it's the widest 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.639 point two fifty seven ft wide, which sounds wide, but 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.720 then again, you've got planes, you've got people, you've got 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.560 the pilot house, pilotouse, that the island island, that's right, 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.280 pilot house wherey come up with that? It sounds like 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.840 a restaurant. Well you you would technically call it that 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.960 on a boat, but this is significantly larger than a boat. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:59.080 I'm gonna go down to the pilot house for some shrimp. Okay, 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.799 uh oh, this is interesting. The weight of each anchor, 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.280 each anchor thirty tons, and in each each link in 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.880 the section of anchor chain weighs three hundred and sixty 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:16.120 pounds massive a couple of people just to lift the look. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:20.560 Each propeller weighs sixty six thousand, two hundred pounds. Each 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:25.480 of the rudders weighs four sorry, forty five point five tons. Yeah, 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.519 that's amazing. Um, all right, how about the storage capacity 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.400 for aviation fuel, which we would assume would be essential 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.920 for something like this Because they're not making power from 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.280 the the the reactor for the planes, they still have 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.600 to carry fuel for the actual point three point three 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.680 million gallons is what they carry? That sure is. I 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:47.040 mean think about that next time you go to the 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.880 Georgia Aquarium and you've got that one million gallon tank. Okay, 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:52.800 number of telephones on board, we're getting into some of 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.440 the funner stuff. Um, funner, more fun, the most fun, 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.360 the most fun stuff. It's the bestest stuff that's coming up. Uh. 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.640 The number of telephones on board twenty five hundred telephones. 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.960 The number of televisions on board three thousand. What are 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.560 they doing watching TV? They got a lot of They 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.040 got a ship to run. You are occasionally allowed a 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.840 little downtime and amazing. Maybe I'm being harsh, I don't know. Anyways, 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:21.919 you'd be quite the quartermaster. Thousands a thousand miles of 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.520 electrical cable is on board when each one of these ships. Um, 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.360 let's see, let's go down to some of the other stuff. Um, 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:33.000 number of dentists on board five ye five dentists, So yeah, 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:34.920 you gotta have that if you have thousands of people 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.279 actually do have dental offices. They aboard, they carry enough 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:43.480 food to feed six thousand people for seventy days. That's 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:48.400 a lot of that's that's eighteen thousand meals a day. Yes, 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.320 that's right, because you're multiplied by three eighteen thousand meals 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.080 and yeah, you're right, that's exactly right. So the amount 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.200 of mail that's processes on board from you know, from 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.359 the post office, one million pounds of mail goes to 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.440 all these people throughout the throughout the year. Um, let's 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.719 a number of medical doctors on board. This is actually 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:10.440 surprisingly low six six considering yeah that you're that's like 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.279 one per thousand. That's that's a pretty low about just 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.560 two more to wrap it up here. The number of 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.440 haircuts that they that they give every week dred a week. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:26.120 But there's only one barber shop, so that that that dramatic. 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.400 To be fair, come on, haircut aboard a navy vessel 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.440 often or involves a pair of electric clippers and not 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.120 much else. Yeah, that list wasn't as fun as I thought. 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.120 It was no, no, no. But but another another one 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:42.280 to think about is that you've got about people who 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:46.360 are part of the air wing aboard the vessel. Now 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.560 the air wing that's all the people necessary for the 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.720 flying and main main maintaining of aircraft. So it's not 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.360 just the pilots, it's also the crew that that the 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.440 flight cruise, the maintenance cruise, that sort of thing. Then 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.560 you've got another three thousand who are the ship's company. 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.560 They're the ones who keep the ship running and have 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.239 their own jobs aboard there, including people who are super secret, 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:12.599 like the people who maintain the nuclear reactors, who even 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:17.800 aboard ships end up being almost legendary because you don't 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.760 necessarily know who it is who works on that duty. 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.400 That it's not always something that is common knowledge aboard ship. 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:29.480 There's a there's an amazing and truly amazing ten hour 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.520 documentary series that PBS did called Carrier, where they follow 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.840 a bunch of sailors aboard the U s S. Nimits, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:44.160 the the lead ship of the Nimitz class aircraft carrier, 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.920 and they talk about their roles aboard the ship, their 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.400 decisions of going into the Navy, what it's like living 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:55.440 aboard this kind of thing. It follows a deployment during 0:06:56.040 --> 0:07:01.160 the wars in Afghanistan, and so it actually follows these 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:06.320 people for a really long time and it's fascinating. And 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.640 one of the things they talked about is how, Yeah, 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.120 I don't think I've ever met anyone who works in 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:15.239 the nuclear reactor area, or if they do, they don't. Yeah, 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.280 they don't say, which is kind of interesting. I like that. 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.680 I like that that secretive element to the Yeah. So 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.720 it's it's really again, it's it's a very specific kind 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.000 of world. And the the crew quarters I had referred 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.440 to the beds are referred to as racks. You have 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.600 a rack of you know, and the racks are tiny. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.440 I mean, I don't know if you've seen pictures or 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.240 video of it, but they there's barely enough space for 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.280 you to climb in to get into your little bed. 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:49.880 And they are stacked three to uh to a section, 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.280 so you've got a lower bunk of mettal bunk in 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:54.600 an upper bunk. All of these are, like I said, 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.040 there's just enough clearance for you to climb in essentially, 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:00.560 um And in fact, I watched you have a guy 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:02.320 getting in one for the first time, and he's like, 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.240 I'm sure I'm going to get better at this, and 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:06.920 this was the top one he did. He have a 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.040 bunch of like bruises on his forehead. Yeah, I had 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.000 a couple of lumps, you know here there. Uh, And 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.960 you have like a tiny locker and maybe a foot 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.640 locker to keep your belongings in otherwise, you know, and 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:21.960 you're just sharing this tiny space, and it might be 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.400 a lot of people sharing a relatively small amount of 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.920 living space, including a lot of people sharing one bathroom. 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.000 I mean, it's well, it's no cruise ship. And you know, 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:33.680 even even if you do go on a cruise ship, 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:35.719 oftentimes you'll you'll get into your room and your realize, like, 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:37.600 this is a pretty small room, but you've got it 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.000 pretty plush compared to the military. It's luxury compared to 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:46.359 the military. So yeah, really really an amazing piece of technology. 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.640 Now I'm gonna go through a little bit more about 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:54.120 the the various aircraft classes that exist, the types of 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.960 aircraft carriers that have existed in the United States history, 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.640 and then I think we can conclude by talking a 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:04.000 little that about the the Forward class of super carrier 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.560 that is soon to be part of the United States 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:12.400 Navy and how it has a couple of interesting, interesting 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:18.080 new technological improvements. UM. That might surprise you because it's 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.720 not it's not necessarily it's not that it's bigger. It's 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.280 not that it's not bigger than the nimits really um. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.839 And it's not that it's necessarily faster or that it's 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:32.640 able to carry a significantly larger UH component of aircraft. 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.560 It's more about how it's more efficient and it needs 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.079 fewer people aboard it, which is kind of cool. So, 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:44.640 going back to the earliest days, the first aircraft carrier 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.600 that the United States had was referred to as a 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:51.360 Langley class aircraft carrier. It was the U S. S. Langley. 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.840 If you hear something class, that means that the name 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.160 of the class is generally the name of the lead 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.480 ship of that class, and then other ships in that 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.040 class were built as using the first one as a 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.760 reference point, like that's the model, and then all the 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:08.480 other ships are going to be built based on that, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.680 largely because manufacturing processes at this stage mean that we 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.199 can actually make copies of stuff. So there might be 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:19.320 a dozen Langley class ships out there. There could there 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.280 could have been Yeah, yeah, I understand. But then but 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.920 the first one was named the Langley, Yes, got it. 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.199 So in this case it's a single ship class, meaning 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.360 that there was only one ever made is a bad 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:33.720 example in my part, but but only because we're talking 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.040 about the very first one. Um it was. It was 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.120 a commission in nineteen twenty two as an aircraft carrier. However, 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.440 that's not how the Langley got got her start. And 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.800 of course we refer to ships as ladies. So she 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:48.920 had a previous life as a collier, which is a 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.439 type of bulk cargo ship. So she was converted from 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:56.480 cargo ship to aircraft carrier. She was originally launched as 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.720 a cargo ship in nineteen thirteen. No boy, she the 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.280 conversion process began in nineteen twenty lasted two years. She 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.440 was recommissioned in nineteen twenty two, and she on a 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:13.160 wooden deck, right, yeah, she was she She did not 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.720 have all the amenities of a modern aircraft carriers. She 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.440 was slow. She was only capable of traveling at fourteen knots, 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.839 which is less than half of what we're talking about 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.320 with the super carriers these days. That's a it's a 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.080 huge problem if you're only going fourteen knots because you 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.240 are not able to generate that amount of air speed 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.040 that airplanes would really need to take off. So it 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.280 was not not This is one of the reasons why 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.719 the Langley is the only one in her class. Um 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.240 or was the only one, I should say. Now, there 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.600 was a captain in the Navy who ended up taking 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.400 control of the Langley. Uh He was given her command 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.040 and ended up establishing a lot of the handling procedures 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.280 that became standard operating procedure on aircraft carriers after that. 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.280 His name was Captain Joseph Reeves. He would eventually rise 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.480 to the rank of admiral. Uh So, a lot of 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.880 the things that ended up being used every day on 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.120 aircraft carriers were that they were established because Reeves put 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.079 those practices into as policy. He said, this is the 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.480 way we're going to do things. Um Now, The Langley 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.040 was damaged by Japanese dive bombers in nineteen forty two, 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:32.359 and the surrounding US ships were forced to scuttle the Langley, 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:37.439 so she was sunk by by US forces on purpose. Next, 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.480 we have the Lexington class, named after the USS Lexington 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.600 that was commissioned in ninety seven. Uh. It was originally 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:50.280 a battle cruiser, not an aircraft carrier. So the first 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.920 two were not necessarily they didn't start out life as 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.240 an aircraft exactly. Uh. And there were two ships in 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.360 the Lexington class, so really the first three aircraft carriers 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.080 started as something else. Now here's the interesting thing about 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.959 why we converted. We being the United States, converted a 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.600 battle cruiser into an aircraft carrier. So you may have 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.560 heard of things like a disarmament treaties. This is not 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.960 a new concept. This does not just refer to the 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:21.079 nuclear age. It goes back further back in the old days, 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.760 like the nineteen twenties. The big weapons were these giant 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.760 navy ships, and so there was a treaty signed, the 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.880 Washington Naval Treaty of nineteen twenty two, which placed strict 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:37.600 limitations on how many warships a nation would be allowed 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.959 by international law to have. If the United States built 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.800 to battle cruisers are actually, I'm sorry, battleships, they weren't 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.199 even they weren't battle cruisers. No, they were battle cruisers. 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.600 So they built two battle cruisers, they would go over 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.040 their limit. However, aircraft carriers at the time were not 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.880 considered really warships. They were considered support. So instead of 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.600 building battle cruiser, they just took the bones of the 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:07.199 battle cruisers and converted them into aircraft carriers. Yeah. So 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.160 this was still in the construction phase. It wasn't like 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.520 they they had them out and sailing and then converted them. 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.040 It was all all from the uh at the shipyards. Uh. 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.600 The lead ship of the class, the Lexington, was sunk 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.800 in nineteen forty two during the Battle of the Coral 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:27.200 Sea that Scott mentioned. The other was the Saratoga, which 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.240 made it through World War Two. She was heavily damaged 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.360 in a couple of different battles, but she made it through, 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.640 and she was later sunk on purpose during a test 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.600 of nuclear weapons. Yeah. Yeah, this is interesting. Huh. Yeah, 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.480 it's when you start, you decide, Hey, we're just gonna 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.880 we're gonna park this here boat right off the bikini 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.040 and then we're gonna blow it up. Yeah, but you 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:51.840 know what, how else are you going to test that? 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:53.840 How else are you going to figure out how that 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:55.720 ship is going to stand up to an attack like that? 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.520 As it turns out, it doesn't, but it certainly proved 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.960 it in that case. Yeah, so very interesting fate for 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.440 those two. Then you have the Ranger class, another single 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.480 ship class of ships. So in other words, it's almost 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.520 funny to call it a class when there's only one, 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.800 but that's what we do. So she was the commission 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.400 in nineteen thirty four and deep commission in ninety s. 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:24.520 And this is the first ship that was built to 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:29.400 be an aircraft carrier. Um. She was only seven thirty 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.840 feet long or two two point five meters. I say 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:36.360 only because that's much shorter than today's super carriers, had 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:39.440 a full crew complement of two thousand, four hundred sixty 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.560 one people. And uh, she was in the Atlantic Ocean 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.000 during World War Two because she was too slow to 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.520 be deemed useful for the Pacific theater. And now you 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.880 said seven thirty ft but that was probably sufficient for 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.640 prop aircraft. Oh yeah, yeah. And and again she was 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.960 built specifically with aircraft carrier in mind, so this was 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.920 not a conversion. So she was, you know, designed with 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.800 those those elements in mind. At that point, all we're 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:11.040 still talking about kind of the straight uh landing takeoff 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.840 strip that caused so many problems early on. Next we 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.880 have the York Town class, which was commissioned in nineteen 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.400 thirty seven. There were three ships built in this class. 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.360 Of course, the lead ship is the York Town Um. 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:25.640 She was sunk in nineteen forty two at the Battle 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:30.120 of Midway, So when we talk about Midway classes, guess 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.640 what that's named after. Anyway. The Hornet was another York 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.680 Town class ship. She was sunk also in nineteen forty 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.280 two at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:45.080 third ship was the original U S S Enterprise, the 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.040 original well original in the sense of aircraft carriers. Um. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.320 Now you know what, I don't think until this morning 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:52.880 when you were talking about I don't think I knew 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.000 that there were two USS Enterprises. Yeah, yeah, so this 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.120 one is This one was a York Town class ship. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.240 There would later be an Enterprise class ship also known 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.080 as the USS Enterprise. So if you guys have been 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.040 watching a lot of Star Trek and you get confused 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:10.399 about which enterprises which, because there's Enterprise you know, a B, C, D, 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.439 and then of course there's the previous ones. Uh that 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.560 dates back all the way to the Navy days, I mean, 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.280 and of course they named the Enterprise after this particular ship. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.280 This was the most decorated ship in US Navy history. 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.639 It's on the bottom of the ocean. Well you can't, 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.240 you know, and no one lives forever going through this list. 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:32.800 I mean, man, there's a bunch of them down there. 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.720 Oh yeah, yeah, Well she she actually was. She made 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:38.840 it through. She was not sunk the way the York 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:43.080 Town and the Hornet were. That's something. She was seven 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.200 seventy feet long or two ys and had a complement 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:50.040 of two thousand, two hundred seventeen crew. Next we get 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.960 to the Wasp class. It's another single ship class. Only 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.080 one ever made. Uh. She was commissioned in nineteen forty 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.000 but sunk in nineteen forty two during the Guadalcanal Campaign, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.960 aim by a Japanese submarine. She was si eight ft 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.639 long or two or ten and she carried a crew 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.080 of two thousand, one hundred sixty seven during wartime or 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:14.160 around eighteen hundred during peacetime. Now, her construction came down 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.240 to politics. This was one of the things I thought 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.440 was fascinating. So you remember that treaty image. In the treaty, 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.199 it limited the amount of tonnage. The United States was 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.520 able to dedicate two aircraft carriers, but they had fifteen 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:34.040 thousand ton tonnage left over after everything else, and they said, well, 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.040 we don't want that to go to waste. Let's build 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.959 an aircraft carrier that will make up this tonnage that 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.000 we have been allotted. And the Wasp was that ship. 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.399 That's strange because okay, you're talking, you're talking about a 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.280 fifteen thousand ton aircraft carrier, yeah, compared to like the 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.119 thirty thousand plus sixty thousand Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, I 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.439 mean it's it seems like it's so small, and how 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:04.440 it's got a wasp that yeah, yeah, and she only 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:12.159 lasted two years before she was sunk. Let's take a 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.560 quick break to thank our sponsor. You know, I've talked 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.320 a lot on the show about smart homes, and you know, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.200 in the old days, it was really hard to set 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.800 up a smart home. But what if you could set 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.639 one up and control it all from your smart phone. 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.080 Well that's where smart things comes in. 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Just go to 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:28.160 smart things dot com slash tech. Now, now we get 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:32.240 into one of the like what was the backbone in 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.000 the United States Navy during World War Two. That's the 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:40.560 Essex class of aircraft carriers, commission in nineteen forty two. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.240 There was also an extended bowl variation. The bow is 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:45.600 the front end of the ship. There was an extended 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.800 bow variation that was commissioned in nineteen four. There were 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:52.479 twenty four ships built in the Essex class. There were 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.119 another eight that had been planned but were canceled before 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:58.800 they could be built. Uh So this was the most 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:02.440 plentiful of them. Out of those twenty four, fourteens saw 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:06.560 combat during World War Two. Not a single one was sunk. 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.200 That's impressive. So all of them made it through World 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:14.440 War two. Uh. They range because there's an extended vol version. 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:16.560 They range from about a hundred twenty feet, which is 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.840 almost two to eight feet, which is about two D seventy. 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:22.879 You know, that kind of makes sense though, because we 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:24.919 were talking about the role reversal and how you know 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.359 that became the primary player. Then the aircraft carrier was 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:30.920 during World War Two, so they when they went out, 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:32.840 you know, these fourteen ships that went out and saw it, 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:36.359 saw action. They were surrounded by support ships and they 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:40.440 were protecting them fiercely. That's probably the difference. That's probably 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:42.760 why all four teen made it through that. I mean, 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:46.360 clearly the biggest danger you you face there. I mean, 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:48.439 there are plenty of dangerous lots of them, but the 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:51.159 biggest one would be submarines because those would be the 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.359 hardest to detect. Now, a lot of the aircraft carriers, 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:56.520 in fact, all aircraft carriers to my knowledge, have anti 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:01.480 submarine um UH strategies where they deploy what is essentially 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:04.240