Aircraft Carriers

An aircraft carrier is a ship capable of handling aircraft that take off and land on its deck. In 1909, the French inventor Clement Ader presented the idea of a ship that carried aircraft. The U.S. Navy began studying and testing this concept in the same year. During the interwar period between World War I and World War II, the U.S. military developed its first actual aircraft carriers. World War II was a turning point in the use of aircraft carrier technology. Carriers replaced battleships as the main ships utilized in fleets, as evidenced in several key battles fought in the Pacific. However, the role and importance of aircraft carriers in war was debated and contested in the decades after World War II. During the ...