Customer Reviews

U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History

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This volume, one of many in Norman Friedman's naval design histories, is amazingly thorough in its coverage of U.S. aircraft carrier design from the 1930s-era Saratoga and Lexington through the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class, as well as the offshoot amphibious assault carriers.

The book is filled with design schematics, ships' specifications and more esoteric naval information than you could possibly absorb in a lifetime. The rich wealth of information is the consistent strength of this series that makes it a bit overwhelming for the casual reader looking for a narrative history of U.S. carrier.

The emphaisis here is on ship design, its impact on operations and little else. If there is any shortcoming to be found within the book, it is that it is rather old, having been last updated in 1983, when the Nimitz class was just hitting its stride and long before the design innovations fueled by the Navy's growth in the waning years of the Cold War.

I've read just about every book I can lay my hands on concerning the Essex class aircraft carrier and though this magnificent book envelops each American carrier it is far (FAR) more superior to the mediocre Essex-Class Carrier by Alan Raven, regardless that Alan Raven's book is dedicated to the Essex alone. Many believe that Raven's book is the standard for the Essex class carrier but it falls far short when compared to this brilliant masterpiece.

Please take my word for it - do NOT spend the $100.00 for Alan Raven's Essex-Class Carrier unless you want a photograph of a radar antenna and save yourself about sixty dollars and months and months of dead-end research and buy this outstanding piece of work instead.

This is the best book I have found on the US Air Craft Carriers. It gives a complete review of carriers untill the late 1970s. I wish the auther would edit it to include, the newest carriers up to the latest ship the GR Ford.

For years, Friedman has set a standard for naval ship subjects. This design history is full of clear quality photos, very nice line drawings by Baker and overviews of the many aircraft carriers. There are also design charts, specifications and lists of ships in the appendices. Just enough information to keep your interest without going too far. An excellent starting point for one's quest to research an individual ship.

This book is not a take-to-the-beach-for-light-summer-reading fare. It is a technically dense, exhaustive study of United States aircraft carrier design, from the first awkward experiments, (the Langley), through a brief description of the then-new (1983) Nimitz class. Reading it is like trying to run through knee-deep mud, but oh, what mud. Everything a serious historian--(or naval architect, for that matter)--could possibly want to know about pre-1983 American carriers is here. Want to know where the avgas tanks were in the first Yorktown class ships? You got it. How about a complete description of the electronic suites--radars, HF/DF, communications, meterological--on the post-war carriers? Every minute iteration in the continually evolving systems is there, and which ships had which systems and when they were installed, upgraded, replaced or removed. Why did some of the Essexes have fold-up gun sponsons? (To fit through the locks of the Panama Canal.) There is even the only good description I've ever seen--with photographs--of the two WWII carqual carriers converted from paddle-wheel (!!) steamers that operated in Lake Michigan. CVEs, the post-war conversion projects, LPHs, dedicated ASW carriers, the second Enterprise, catapults, arresting gear, and on and on. If you are a serious naval historian, this book belongs on your shelf.

Along with Friedman's other books on the main classes of U.S. combatant ships (Battleships, Cruisers, etc.), this book must be considered as the greatest book ever on the development, construction, battle performance,and redesign of U.S. Carriers ever published. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings, "U.S. Aircraft Carriers" has the added value of being very readable--and enjoyable.

For every class of carrier built during the century, Friedman assembles a mountain of data concerning the thoughts that went into the design and building of each class. Friedman reveals not only the military necessities that each carrier attempted to cover, but the international and political pressures that also figured into each design. What emerges is a very large book, but one that is very well constructed from the best materials. I've owned my copy of this book for approximately 20 years, and with average care, the book appears virtually brand new.

What is so interesting when reading this book was how American designers, after the creation of the experimental "Langley," immediately hit upon the formula for all future American battle carriers with the Lexington and Saratoga. Each was very large and fast, and could carry a very large air group. The U.S. has, on occassion, built smaller carriers for specific purposes when tiny, inexpensive types were all that was needed, or as in the case with the Independence class, the need for hulls was so great that partially built ships were hurriedly converted and performed Yeoman duty. In fact, the U.S. has gotten tremendous value for its investment in carriers. The Essex class ships from WWII were rebuilt several times to fit a number of needs, and were remarkably successful. These ships, having been designed for relatively small WWII aircraft, were in fact able to withstand major rebuilds that eventually saw them carrying the large Douglas built A3D Skywarriors. The designation, "A3D" stood for "All 3 Dead" according to some rather clever buy sardonic pilots, but the fact remains that these planes were quite large and could carry an atomic bomb for great distances, thus giving the Navy a role in our nuclear deterrent prior to the creation of the ICBM-carrying submarine. The last Essex to survive in service, the Oriskany, remained active until 1976. This wonderful class was able to carry a substantial carrier attack wing, which it repeatedly demonstrated during the Vietnam War.

Of course, the greatest of all American carriers, and probably the greatest carrier of all time, was the USS Enterprise of the Yorktown class. The Enterprise played such a vital part in the earlier years of the war against Japan, but unfortunately, there was no clamor to save the ship as a museum ship in 1959, and it was subsequently scrapped, a virtual crime. Fortunately, as one great Enterprise went out, another came in. The current nuclear powered ship is little different from the brand-new Nimitz carriers, and has now served for more than half a century. Talk about getting a lot of bang for your buck!

What I particularly enjoy about Friedman's book is that it gives great attention to a few of the smaller, less well-known ships of WWII. Although the Wasp, for instance, had a very small displacement, it carried a standard air group. Had it not been torpedo'd almost as soon as it tranferred to the Pacific (three of the extraordinarily well-built "long lances) it would have doubtlessly done great work in late-42/early-43 when America was down to a single active carrier, the Enterprise. The Wasp was so well-thought of that an Essex as immediately re-named in her honor. What a great ship!

In short, if you are interested in carrier operations of the Second World War, you need a reference book and this should be the one. They are beginning to become more and more scarce, so get one while you can.

a must-have for anyone enthusiastic about aircraft carrier. i hope for a revised version including the ford class carrier.

Excellent reference for those that want to know more about naval aviation than view a few cool photos!

This is an excellent book for those who want technical information about the US Navy Aircraft Carriers. The book covers detail information about the design, construction, and modifications of all of the classes of US carriers built since the beginning of carrier aviation. In addition, the book covers other designs the US Navy thought about but never bothered to build. This book is not for the novice but for those who need detail technical information, this is the book to get.