(Click map for a high resolution image)
Posted on 07/12/2013 7:42:25 AM PDT by Jeff Head
Currently (July 2013) there are five US Navy Aircraft Carrier museums. Four are of Essex class carriers commissioned during World War II which underwent the SBC-125 refit in the 1950s to modernize them. All were commissioned in 1943 & served into modern times. The last, the USS Lexington, was decommissioned in 1991 after 48 years service. The other is the USS Midway, namesake of a larger class carrier built at the end of the war. She underwent two major refits, in the 1950s & in 1970 greatly enlarging her flight deck for modern aircraft. She was commissioned in 1945 & decommissioned in 1992 after 47 years service.
Name: USS Yorktown
Designation: CV-10
Class: Essex
Displacement: 41,200 tons (after modernization)
Commissoned: 1943
Decommissioned: 1970
Mueum Web Site: http://www.patriotspoint.org/
Location: Charleston, SC (Click HERE for a map)
Name: USS Intrepid
Designation: CV-11
Class: Essex
Displacement: 41,200 tons (after modernization)
Commissoned: 1943
Decommissioned: 1974
Mueum Web Site: http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/
Location: New York, NY (Click HERE for a map)
Name: USS Hornet
Designation: CV-12
Class: Essex
Displacement: 41,200 tons (after modernization)
Commissoned: 1943
Decommissioned: 1970
Mueum Web Site: http://www.uss-hornet.org/
Location: Alameda, CA (Click HERE for a map)
Name: USS Lexington
Designation: CV-16
Class: Essex
Displacement: 48,300 tons (after modernization)
Commissoned: 1943
Decommissioned: 1991
Mueum Web Site: http://usslexington.com/
Location: Corpus Christi, TX (Click HERE for a map)
Name: USS Midway
Designation: CV-41
Class: Midway
Displacement: 74,000 tons (after modernization)
Commissoned: 1945
Decommissioned: 1992
Mueum Web Site: http://www.midway.org/
Location: San Diego, CA (Click HERE for a map)
Currently, none of the more modern "super carriers," meaning none of the Forrestal Class, Kitty Hawk Class, or later aircraft carriers, have been saved and set aside as museums. However, there is an active effort underway to get the John F. Kennedy, CV-67, set up as an aicraft carrier museum in the New England area, She was a "super carrier," built to a modified Kitty Hawk standard, and was the last conventionally powered (meaning non-nulcear) aircraft carrier the United States built.
Name: USS John F. Kennedy
Designation: CV-67
Class: Kitty Hawk
Displacement: 82,700 tons
Commissoned: 1968
Decommissioned: 2007
Mueum Web Site: http://www.ussjfkri.org/
Location: (Proposed Rhode Island)
WORLD-WIDE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
THE RISING SEA DRAGON IN ASIA
AEGIS & AEGIS-LIKE VESSELS OF THE WORLD
THE US NAVY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY
USS Enterprise will be scrapped...and I agree, I think it is a sad shame. First nuclear powered carrier. Longest serving US carrier in history. She should be saved. But they have already started dismantling her.
The Saratoga foundation has given it up. Condition of the ship was too bad and the Navy removed her from the donation list. Those folks went in full with the USS JFK museum effort, joining force with them and giving that group all of their money.
Nope. No official training carrier.
Who sunk her?
CV-43, was the USS Coral Sea.
CV-43, was the USS Coral Sea.
Yes, the one link has a typo, but on the main map, and on the Designation for that carrier, it is correctly called out as CV-41. Take a look. It’s fixed on my site, but I cannot edit this post.
I work right across the street from the USS Midway-—see her every day from the sixth floor lobby of my building as well as when walking to and from my car.
Cool.
The United States Navy,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_America_(CV-66)
Nope. A former shipmate of mine I think spent a night on board the Lexington a few years back. Kennedy is a shoe in for preservation and will get government funding for it that is a sure bet. A carrier museum is very, very, expensive. Most private orgs can't raise the many. Kennedy is technically a carrier class all it's own.
It's been long rumored America and Kennedy were originally to have been proposed nukes but changed under the Johnson administration. The Kennedy was a possibility but the America impossible because she was awarded under Ike and her keel was laid under JFK's term. Too late then for such a huge change. IMO that rumor stems from blueprints that were located on the America with CVN 66 on the blueprints and CVA 66 after that. I saw that myself on some piping charts I think and wondered about it at the time. I was working on an issue that had me studying the piping blueprints for a few weeks. Kennedy was awarded on 4/30 1964 and would have had LBJ/McNamara influence. The fact Kennedy is it's own class does make the nuke to conventional changeover a possibility.
The Forrestal is another oddity many persons don't know about. Although Forrestal was the first super carrier it still had the older 600 PSI steam propulsion plants common to previous older carriers. Saratoga was the first 1200 PSI 8 Boiler system carrier. This stayed consistent on the CVA/CV's through the Kennedy Class. Forrestal has been released from Museum hold and is set to be scrapped.
Ok, so technically speaking there’s a sixth carrier (another Essex Class ship) that you can visit.
Just need SCUBA gear and a rating to go down to around 100’.
There’s also a Lexington (CV-2) Class ship that can be visited, under similar circumstances to the Essex-class mentioned above. Just at a slightly greater expense (both in terms of $$$ and the chance of turning yourself into a permanent nite-light.)
The Navy sank her to gather data for the USS Gerald R Ford about four years ago. She was sank off VACAPES in about 15,000 ft of water. She was considered too classified to allow access to her in less shallow water.
Hey Jeff...nice thread.
I spent an entire day on the Midway...the organizers and the city have done a really nice job of restoration, maintenance and interpretation.
Had a bunch of old geezers, (my age dudes) who served on her on the bridge and navigation station; they were great to talk to and they were having a good time talking with the tourists.
They also have one each of every model aircraft that was launched off her including the WWII prop jobs.
Horsey,
Swift Boat Sailor
1965-66
LOL!
That SINKEX should have silenced critics of carriers as being easy to sink. She took extended hits during the process and yes she finally had to have pre-set charges to sink her. Those charges were likely where a ship would not expect to take massive multiple hits. There had also would have been as I understand it many key WT hatches which would have had to have been {intentionally} blown out as well for her to sink.
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