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"The ability of the United States Navy to fight and win a protracted war in the Pacific was not solely the result of technology, tactics, or leadership. Naval aviation maintenance played a major role in the U.S. victory over Japan in the second World War. The naval war against Japan did not achieve sustained success until enough aircraft technicians were available to support the high tempo of aviation operations that fast carrier task force doctrine demanded. When the United States realized war was imminent and ordered a drastic increase in the size of its aviation fleet, the Navy was forced to reconsider its earlier practices and develop new policies in maintenance, supply, and technical training. Not only did a shortage of technicians plague the Navy, but the scarcity of aviation supply and repair facilities in the Pacific soon caused panic in Washington. While the surface navy's modernization of at-sea replenishment was beneficial, it did not solve the problems of sustaining war-time aircraft readiness levels sufficient to a winning a naval air war. Fisher outlines the drastic institutional changes that accompanied an increase in aviation maintenance personnel from fewer than 10,000 to nearly 250,000 bluejackets, the complete restructuring of the naval aviation technical educational system, and the development of a highly skilled labor force. The first comprehensive study on the importance of aircraft maintenance and the aircraft technician in the age of the aircraft carrier, Sustaining the Carrier War, provides the missing link to our understanding of Great Power conflict at sea."-- Provided by publisher.

Among all the celebrations of the RAF's centenary, it was largely forgotten that the establishment of an independent air force came at a cost - and it was the Royal Navy that paid the price. In 1918 it had been pre-eminent in the technology and tactics of employing aircraft at sea, but once it lost control of its own air power, it struggled to make the RAF prioritise naval interests, in the process losing ground to the rival naval air forces of Japan and the United States. This book documents that struggle through the cash-strapped 1920s and '30s, culminating in the Navy regaining control of its aviation in 1937, but too late to properly prepare for the impending war. However, despite the lack of resources, British naval flying had made progress, especially in the advancement of carrier strike doctrine. These developments are neatly illustrated by the experiences of Lieutenant William Lucy, who was to become Britain's first accredited air 'ace' of the war and to lead the world's first successful dive-bombing of a major warship. Making extensive use of the family archive, this book also reproduces many previously unseen photographs from Lucy's album, showing many aspects of life in the Fleet Air Arm up to the end of the Norway campaign. Although it is beyond the scope of this book, in November 1940 the inter-war concentration on carrier strike was to be spectacularly vindicated by the air attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto - it inspired the Japanese to a far larger effort at Pearl Harbor the following year, but the Royal Navy had shown the way.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the 'as fitted' general arrangements, these drawings represented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service. Intended to provide a permanent reference for the Admiralty and the dockyards, these highly detailed plans were drawn with exquisite skill in multi-coloured inks and washes that represent the acme of the draughtsman's art. Today they form part of the incomparable collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which is using the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality. This book is one of a series based entirely on these draughts which depict famous warships in an unprecedented degree of detail-complete sets in full colour, with many close-ups and enlargements that make every aspect clear and comprehensible. Extensive captions point the reader to important features to be found in the plans, and an introduction covers the background to the design. HMS _Victorious_ was a ship with two almost separate incarnations-as built in 1941 she was one of a new type of armoured carrier which saw strenuous wartime service; post-war the ship underwent a massive reconstruction lasting nearly eight years that saw her recommission in1958 as one of the best equipped carriers in the world, ready for another decade of duty. Both these phases of the ship's life are fully documented, which allows this novel form of anatomy to cover two generations of carrier design.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Super carrier
• Thunder ballet
• The golden age
• The Kitty Hawk
• Cold wars and hot spots
• Next-generation aircraft
• New developments
• Vietnam
• The Forrestal fire
• Turning point and aftermath
• Evolution
• Challenges
• A dangerous world
• Into the sunset
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Technical data
• Appendix B: Individual ships
• Appendix C: Aircraft technical data
• Appendix D: Air wings.

The book covers the Forrestal class supercarriers and the follow-on ships, which are basically of the same design, i.e. the Forrestal CV-59, Saratoga CV-60, Ranger CV-61, Independence CV-62, Kitty Hawk CV-63, Constellation CV-64, America CV-66 and Kennedy CV-67. (The Enterprise CVN-65 is unique and is not covered beyond an explanation of the reasons for returning to conventional power in the America and Kennedy that followed her.) As in The Essex Aircraft Carriers and The Independence Light Aircraft Carriers, the main emphasis is on the operational history of these ships, which covers a span of over fifty years. There are 81 photographs included in four signatures covering the whole history of the supercarriers interspersed within the body of the book. Maps include the Western Pacific, Vietnam, Mediterranean, Middle East, Indian Ocean and Caribbean. The front end paper illustration shows the Saratoga as representative of the Forrestal class with port and starboard profiles and an overhead view. The rear end paper shows similar views of the Constellation as part of the Kitty Hawk class. Appendix A gives a brief overview of the design technical data for the ships including their dimensions, propulsion systems, arresting gear, catapults, armament, and radars. Illustrations include an annotated inboard profile of the class as built, as well as annotated cross sections comparing the differences between Forrestal and the John F. Kennedy. Appendix B profiles individual ships with a short description of significant items that are not included in the main body of the book. Data for each ship includes the builder as well as dates for keel laying, launch, commissioning, redesignations and decommissioning. Illustrations include the command shield for each ship. Appendix C provides technical data (power plants, dimensions, weights, performance, crew, and armament) for aircraft that operated from the ships over the course of their careers. Included is a table comparing the old Navy designations with the uniform system adopted in 1962 as well as an explanation of each system. Appendix D includes a description of the air wing and its component squadrons and how they have evolved over time, as well as an explanation of the tail code system. For each ship, every deployment is covered with tables showing the dates of deployment, the squadrons assigned within the air group/air wing, the modex and aircraft types. Where the tail code letters are different from the air wing, they are shown next to the modex.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Beginnings
• A purpose-built ship and numerous conversions
• Take-off decks
• Take-off platforms, catapults and lighters
• HMS Furious
• HMS Argus
• USS Langley
• Progress
• Different navies, different techniques
• Flight from ships other than carriers
• HMS Implacable described and compared
• Flying from a straight-deck carrier
• Design innovation and the 'rubber deck'
• Transformation
• Flying from an angled-deck carrier
• Helicopters
• Short take-off, vertical landing
• What might have been
• Cross-deck operations
• Postscript.