USS Langley (CV-1)
USS Langley underway, 1927 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United States | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake | |
| Builder | Mare Island Naval Shipyard |
| Laid down | 18 October 1911 |
| Launched | 24 August 1912 |
| Commissioned | 7 April 1913 |
| Decommissioned | 24 March 1920 |
| Recommissioned | 20 March 1922 |
| Decommissioned | 25 October 1936 |
| Recommissioned | 21 April 1937 |
| Renamed | Langley, 21 April 1920 |
| Reclassified |
|
| Stricken | 8 May 1942 |
| Identification | |
| Nickname(s) | "Covered Wagon" |
| Honors & awards |
|
| Fate | Scuttled after Japanese air attack off Java coast, 27 February 1942; 8°51′4″S 109°2′3″E / 8.85111°S 109.03417°E |
| Badge | |
| Class overview | |
| Preceded by | N/A |
| Succeeded by | Lexington class |
| Planned | 2 |
| Completed | 1 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type |
|
| Displacement | |
| Length | 542 ft (165.2 m) |
| Beam | 65 ft 5 in (19.9 m) |
| Draft |
|
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) |
| Range | 3,500 nmi (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried |
|
| Aviation facilities |
|
USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (Navy Fleet Collier No. 3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Langley was named after Samuel Langley, an American aviation pioneer. She was the sole member of her class to be rebuilt as a carrier. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built Lexington-class battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga. Following another conversion to a seaplane tender, Langley saw service in World War II. On 27 February 1942, while ferrying a cargo of USAAF P-40s to Java, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd naval air flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.