“… It is impossible for a moment to think that the landing of a biplane in a quiet harbor and its takeoff from a large and awkward platform have something to do with really naval aviation. The only possible naval airplane will be launched from the ship's side by an auxiliary mechanism and land on the water at the ship's side as close to it as possible … by plane from a ramp built aboard the British battleship Africa. After this statement, only 5 years passed and in the same Great Britain appeared the world's first aircraft carrier, which became the forerunner of the most formidable and universal weapon of the World Ocean.
Aircraft carriers, which are by far the largest surface warships, are capable of performing a variety of combat missions. This includes fighter cover for formations, and strikes against land and sea targets, and the destruction of submarines. The displacement of modern nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is about 100 thousand tons, the length exceeds 300 meters, and their hangars can accommodate more than a hundred aircraft. These unique ships appeared less than a hundred years ago - during the First World War. Although the history of their origin began with balloons and balloons raised above cruisers. These aeronautical vehicles, capable of reaching 6-kilometer altitude and flying hundreds of kilometers, almost immediately attracted the interest of the military, since they could become an ideal means of conducting reconnaissance, significantly increasing the observation range.
Meanwhile, along with the improvement of military aeronautics, aviation was developing at a rapid pace. And since airplanes, in comparison with balloons, were much more advanced combat and reconnaissance means, the question of creating floating bases for airplanes also became quite natural. The main problem was that it was necessary to build a special platform for aircraft take-off.
USA
The first successful attempt to take off an airplane from a ship and land it back on board was carried out by the Americans. Although at first the idea of the joint use of a ship and an aircraft did not arouse interest in the US Naval Department. It arose only after the first real successes of aviation.
In 1908, American aircraft designer Glen Curtiss designed and built his first aircraft. And two years later, in May 1910, Curtiss gained national fame, covering a distance of 230 kilometers (from Albany to New York) in 2 hours and 50 minutes. Apparently, this fact could no longer go unnoticed, and in September of the same year, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Material Supply Washington Irving Chambers was ordered to "collect information on the progress of aeronautics in terms of the suitability of these devices for the needs of the fleet."
And soon it became known that the Hamburg-America steamship company, together with the World newspaper, intends to purchase an aircraft so that it can fly from a platform installed on one of its liners.
Upon learning of this, Chambers went to an aviation exhibition, where the famous Wright brothers, who made the world's first plane flight in 1903, conducted demonstration flights. Chambers was determined to convince one of them, Wilber, to take off from the deck of the ship. However, Wright flatly refused to do this. And then Eugene Eli, one of the pilots who worked for Curtiss, volunteered to participate in the experiment.
For these tests, the American Navy allocated the light cruiser Birmingham, on the nose of which a wooden platform was installed with a downward slope. It was decided to take off while the ship was moving against the wind at a speed of 10 knots, which should have significantly reduced the takeoff run of the aircraft. On November 14, 1910, at 15:16 local time, the world's first aircraft took off from a ship in the Chesapeake Bay. Thus, it was proved that the plane can take off from the ship, but this was not enough. It was necessary to ensure that after takeoff and completing the mission, he was able to return on board. Indeed, otherwise, the aircraft-carrying ship could move away from the coastal base no more than the range of its aircraft.
Therefore, it was decided to conduct a new test. It happened in San Francisco Bay on the armored cruiser Pennsylvania. On January 18, 1911, Ely took off from the San Francisco airfield, 19 kilometers from the fleet, and then landed his plane on the deck of the cruiser. And at the end of the same year, Eli died in a plane crash. He had no other awards, except for a letter of thanks from the Minister of the Navy. His services in the creation of aircraft carriers received official recognition only a quarter of a century later, when he was posthumously awarded the Cross "For Distinction".
And yet, despite the rather successful experiments conducted by Eugene Eli, it was obvious that bulky wooden platforms significantly reduced the combat qualities of the ship, which meant that fundamentally different ways of launching the aircraft were required.
On November 5, 1915, the first in the history of the American fleet was launched from a catapult mounted on the armored cruiser "North Carolina", and six months later, on the same cruiser, a more advanced catapult was installed on high struts above the stern gun turret. Using this device, on July 11, 1916, the Chevalier pilot ejected for the first time from a ship in progress. Similar catapults were installed on two more armored cruisers, but after the United States entered the First World War in April 1917, the aircraft armament on the artillery ships was dismantled.
United Kingdom
Back in 1907, the Wright brothers offered the British government their plane, but both the military department and the conservative-minded Admiralty at that time rejected this offer. However, when two amateur enthusiasts, Francis McClean and George Cockburn, offered to train naval officers to fly the aircraft at their own expense, and also provide two aircraft for this, the Admiralty announced the recruitment of volunteers. Of more than two hundred applicants, only 4 people were selected, including Navy Lieutenant Charles Samson. It was he who, in January 1912, for the first time in the history of the British fleet took off from an inclined platform mounted on the bow of the battleship "Africa".
Only after that did the Imperial Defense Committee begin to study issues related to both military and naval aviation. As a result, a separate branch of the military was created, later called the Royal Flying Corps (KLK). It consisted of both army and independent naval aviation. Charles Samson was appointed commander of the KLK naval wing. At the end of 1912, to conduct experiments with naval aviation, he was allocated an armored cruiser "Hermes", where a very original system was used to take off the seaplanes before the start, the aircraft mounted on a trolley was accelerated along the deck under the influence of the thrust force of its own propeller and only after takeoff this cart was detached from the aircraft. Later, the cart with the help of shock absorbers began to slow down at the edge of the deck, and the plane, smoothly sliding off it, continued its flight.
The experiments carried out on the Hermes were so successful that the Admiralty decided to purchase an unfinished tanker and convert it as an aircraft carrier for 10 seaplanes.
After the outbreak of World War I, British Naval Aviation was reorganized and renamed the Royal Maritime Air Service (KMAF). In the course of hostilities, it became obvious that for successful joint operations with ships of the fleet at a sufficient distance from the coast, the seaplanes clearly did not have enough flight range, and therefore the question of creating a carrier ship for aircraft arose with renewed vigor. For these purposes, the Admiralty requisitioned three high-speed ferries and the Campania liner. A flight deck with a length of 36.6 m was installed on the tank of the liner, and by 1916 the Campania had been modernized, which made it possible to increase the length of this deck to 61 m. The liner developed a speed of over 20 knots and had excellent seaworthiness, which made it more suitable for action as part of a squadron than the ferries provided for the same purposes. However, soon the Royal Navy acquired 3 more ferries, which were converted into seaplane carriers, in addition, German captured dry cargo ships were also converted into aircraft.
On February 19, 1915, the Dardanelles operation began, the purpose of which was to capture the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits and capture the capital of Turkey, which was to force the latter to withdraw from the war on the side of Germany. For this, in August of the same year, the seaplane carrier Ben-Mai-Shri arrived in the Aegean Sea, on board of which there were two seaplanes-torpedo bomber. On August 12, one of them carried out the world's first attack on a sea-based torpedo aircraft of a Turkish transport, which was thrown aground after an attack by a British submarine. And after 5 days, both torpedo bombers attacked enemy ships. As a result, another Turkish transport was sunk. And although the naval aviation showed clear successes, the Dardanelles operation itself ended in a complete failure of the allied forces. As a result, the then War Minister Winston Churchill was forced to resign, and the North Sea became the main area of hostilities for the CICA.
On May 31, 1916, the largest naval operation of the First World War took place. In this battle, later called Jutland by the British and Skagerrak by the Germans, naval aviation was used for the first time. But at the same time, in further naval history, there was simply no such large-scale operation, wherever the air force played a more insignificant role.
This operation began on May 31, when the squadron commander at 14.45 ordered the aircraft of the Engadine seaplane carrier to be launched. After another 45 minutes, its pilot, Frederick Rutland, managed to locate the German squadron and broadcast a radio message about it to the Engadine. But during the further pursuit of enemy ships, the plane's gas line ruptured and Rutland had to turn back. This, in fact, ended the participation of British aviation in the Skagerrak battle.
And nevertheless, the command of the British fleet did not intend to abandon attempts to equip artillery ships with reconnaissance aircraft. By that time, it became quite obvious that in combat conditions, in comparison with seaplanes, aircraft with a wheeled landing gear have indisputable advantages, and above all in the fact that they are completely independent of the roughness of the sea. Among the supporters of the use of such aircraft was Frederick Rutland, nicknamed after that memorable battle Rutland of Jutland. After the successful takeoff of his plane from the deck of the Manxman, the British came close to creating an aircraft carrier capable of operating as part of a squadron and intended for wheeled aircraft.
The first British aircraft carrier was the battle cruiser Furyoz, completed as a "partial" aircraft carrier and commissioned on 4 July 1917. Many successful launches were made from his side, but the issue of landing was never resolved. One of the officers of the ship, the squadron commander, Dunning, tried to find a way out of this situation. He took off from his side in a fighter plane and, having passed along the side, landed on the forward take-off deck. After 5 days, Dunning decided to repeat this experiment, but during the landing approach, his plane, unable to resist on the deck, fell directly under the stem of the cruiser in progress. Dunning died, and such experiments were banned by the Admiralty.
And yet, by March 1918, "Furyoz" underwent a second modernization. A second landing site was installed, and under it was another hangar for 6 aircraft. Initially, sandbags and steel cables stretched not across, but along the deck of the ship were used to brake the aircraft during landing. Small hooks mounted on the landing gear of the aircraft, sliding along these cables, slowed the aircraft down. In total, during the years of the First World War, 19 aircraft carriers and seaplane carriers entered the Royal Navy of Britain, by the spring of 1918 it numbered more than 3,000 aircraft, and the richest combat experience of British naval pilots was simply invaluable.
France
In 1909, a brochure entitled "Military Aviation" was published in France. Its author, the inventor Clement Ader, described in his work a description of an aircraft-carrying ship with a continuous take-off and landing deck, a cruiser-like speed, as well as hangars, elevators and aircraft workshops. But the idea expressed by him could not be implemented in practice, since the level of development of aviation at that time simply did not allow it.
However, a year earlier, in the same place, in France, a special commission of 30 officers arrived in the Le Mans area (a city in northwestern France) to observe the flights of the notorious Wilber Wright. And in 1910, another commission was created to study the capabilities of airships in relation to the needs of the fleet. So, this commission recommended the command to pay attention not only to airships, but also to airplanes, and also proposed to create a naval air force. The command, having agreed with these recommendations, immediately began to actively act. Soon, the French fleet acquired the first aircraft - a seaplane designed by Maurice Farman, and 7 officers were allocated for flight training. Thus, in the creation of naval aviation, France is quite significantly ahead of both the United States and Great Britain.
In March 1912, the French cruiser "Foudre" was equipped with the world's first ship-based aircraft hangar, and in 1913, as a seaplane base ship, it already took part in the maneuvers of the Republican fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. During the First World War, "Fudr" was used as a carrier of seaplanes and in providing assistance to Montenegro in the Adriatic, and in the defense of the Suez Canal, and during the Dardanelles operation. In 1915, in addition to Fudra, another French seaplane carrier came into operation - the converted liner Campinas, which could carry up to 10 seaplanes on board, located in two hangars. In the same year, two more paddle steamers were reconstructed and converted into air transport. During the war years, the number of French naval aviation amounted to 1,264 aircraft and 34 airships.
And although the further development of aircraft carriers in France was somewhat slowed down due to the end of the First World War, the problem of building aircraft carriers with a continuous flight deck continued to be studied by specialists.
Japan
In the first decade of the 20th century, Japanese naval aviation also took its first steps. At the beginning of 1912, three Japanese lieutenants were sent to France to learn how to fly an aircraft, and two more were sent to the United States, to the flight school of Glen Curtiss. At the same time, the Japanese fleet acquired 4 seaplanes, and on November 2 of the same year, Japanese pilots made their first flights at the Yokosuka naval base.
In 1914, the transport "Wakamiya Maru", which first took part in hostilities in the fall of 1914, during the siege of the German base of Qingdao, was converted into a base carrying 4 seaplanes. The Wakamia Maru's seaplanes carried out successful reconnaissance flights and even managed to sink a minelayer, although all their battles with German aircraft were fruitless. The growing interest of the Japanese fleet in naval aviation led to the fact that numerous specialists began to arrive in Japan from both England and France, as well as new aircraft models. The Japanese also carried out constant experiments with aircraft taking off from platforms mounted on towers of the main caliber.
The National Shipbuilding Program, adopted in 1918, provided for the mandatory construction of two aircraft carriers, and as a result, Japan became the owner of the first specially built aircraft carrier.
Russia
In 1910, the first real project of an aircraft carrier appeared in Russia, intended for basing aircraft with a wheeled chassis. It all started with the fact that in the spring of 1909 the captain of the corps of mechanical engineers of the fleet L. M. Matsievich at a meeting of the St. Petersburg naval circle made a report "On the state of aviation technology and the possibility of using airplanes in the navy", then the same considerations were set forth by him in a memo presented to the chief of the General Staff. A few months later, a proposal for the construction of an aircraft carrier was presented in the memorandum of Lieutenant Colonel M. M. Konokotin, where it was argued that "initially you can limit yourself to one of the old ships, for example," Admiral Lazarev ".
In the converted form, "Admiral Lazarev" was supposed to be an "airplane of the 1st detachment of naval air reconnaissance" with a flight deck without superstructures and chimneys, and under it - an open hangar for 10 aircraft, supplied by two aircraft lifts. This project received approval from the naval department, but the matter did not move further.
The unusually rapid development of aviation technology led to the fact that in 3-4 years the first seaplanes appeared, capable of conducting reconnaissance from sea airfields, which could be deployed almost everywhere. And in this case, the advantages of stationary bases of reconnaissance aircraft over aircraft carriers were obvious. And the conditions of the Baltic and Black Seas, to a certain extent, made it possible to get by with land aviation and coastal hydro-aviation. And yet, in connection with the development of new operational plans for the Russian fleet of 1910-1912, associated with the coming war, the further development of naval aviation was continued.
After the death of the II Pacific squadron, made up of the most efficient ships of the Baltic Fleet, in the Battle of Tsushima, St. Petersburg turned out to be practically defenseless. And despite the rather successful implementation of the shipbuilding program, the size of the Russian fleet was less than the German one. Therefore, to protect the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, the section from Nargen Island to the Porkkala-Udd Peninsula had to be blocked by minefields and their installation had to be done before the enemy forces arrived. And in order to detect an enemy approaching the Gulf of Finland, observation posts had to be moved west of this line. In this regard, the head of the 1st operational department of the Naval General Staff, Captain II rank A. V. Kolchak suggested using aviation for reconnaissance, and on August 6, 1912, an Experimental Aviation Station was opened in the Rowing Port of St. Petersburg, where pilots were trained.
In the same 1912, the successful development of naval aviation took place in the Black Sea - the first squadron was formed there, a hydro-aerodrome with four hangars was equipped, aviation workshops, meteorological stations and a photo laboratory began to work.
And yet the declaration of war caught the naval aviation in its infancy. Aviation detachments began their action only in the Baltic and Black Seas, as for the Pacific Ocean, they were supposed to be deployed there not earlier than 1915.
With the outbreak of hostilities, the Baltic naval aviation conducted reconnaissance, and also attempted to intercept enemy aircraft. To solve the tasks of operational escorting of the forces of the fleet, basic aviation was no longer enough, aircraft-carrying ships were needed, capable of covering the formations, while the seaplane carriers could carry out reconnaissance where the basic aviation was powerless due to the insufficient radius of action of the aircraft. There were no hostilities on the Black Sea until October 1914. This made it possible to complete the operational deployment of aviation units, train personnel and develop some combat tactics. It has also been proven that aircraft can be successfully used to find mines and detect submarines.
In 1917, the passenger steamer "Romania" was converted into a hydro-cruiser designed for 4 aircraft, which also actively participated in hostilities until the end of the war.
Aviation began to play an important role as a means of not only reconnaissance, but also attack. Russian hydro-cruisers took part in almost all major operations. And yet, the capabilities of aircraft carriers during the First World War were not fully assessed. It was believed that aircraft-carrying ships could not act independently, since they were not able to defend themselves either from submarine attacks, or from surface ships, or from enemy aircraft. And similar views dominated the fleets for at least two decades after the end of the First World War. Only the Second World War could dispel this delusion …
