The 10 worst aircraft carriers ever made

Britain converted a half-built Italian liner, the Conte Rosso into HMS Argus. Since then, aircraft carriers, with their ability to project airpower over vast distances have become a key weapon for nations sufficiently rich and with a coastline. As well as a runway – known as a flight deck – an aircraft must be able to store aircraft and their parts and be survivable in both extreme war and weather.

Operating aircraft at sea, from a crowded flight deck, often with catapult assistance, is extremely perilous and hard to get right, here are 10 aircraft carriers that learned the hard way.

Short of ships to put aircraft on, the Royal Navy fell on the idea of one Captain Slattery to convert a merchant ship by fitting the minimum amount of equipment necessary to operate aircraft. This was rebuffed by the Ministry of Supply who weren’t keen on losing valuable cargo capacity for the time it would take to make the conversion.

Consequently, it wasn’t until mid-1943 that the first ship, Empire MacAlpine entered service and an aircraft landed on a merchant ship for the first time. Conditions were basic with a simple flight deck of around 140 metres built over the cargo holds which themselves held grain, stand fast one that was converted into a rudimentary hangar.

Operating three or four Swordfish, the only aircraft that could safely operate from something with a maximum speed of 15 knots, the air groups regularly suffered at the hands of the weather and landing accidents if not the enemy.

Aside from three flights parented by 860 NAS of the Dutch Navy, the other 16 ships embarked flights of 836 NAS which including spare aircraft at depots on both sides of the Atlantic parented around 100 Swordfish. For this great, and perilous effort, the MAC Ships were responsible for exactly no U-Boats being sunk.

The first purpose-built US carrier, Ranger, was relatively small as the US Navy had used up most of the tonnage available under the Washington Naval Treaty. At 17,000 tons she was around 7,000 tons bigger than Hermes or Hōshō but the USN had somehow shoehorned 70 aircraft onto her, to their 20, by making a few compromises.

To keep things in trim and reduce the exhaust gases the powerplant was small producing around 55,000 horsepower, for a top speed of 30 knots. As a weight-saving measure there was no provision for a torpedo squadron as commissioned in 1934, one only being gained shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

More worryingly the rapid advance in aircraft speed and weight during the 1930s meant that by WW2 her flight deck wasn’t strong enough to support the air group, making her somewhat redundant.

Apart from a brief stint attacking North Africa during Operation Torch and Norway in Operation Leader Ranger, spent the war ferrying aircraft across the Atlantic and then as a training carrier in the Pacific. The only pre-war US carrier not to see action against the Japanese, Ranger also forced the always volatile US Navy chief Admiral Ernest King to face the indignity of asking the British to lend him a carrier.

HMS Furious was being used as an aircraft carrier before the Argus entered service, but not in a way that was recognisable to modern eyes. Originally designed as a battle cruiser armed with two 18” guns, one at each end, the forward one was lost to a ten aircraft hangar and flying off ramp during build.

Initially there was no landing on the facility. Despite this Sqn Cdr Edwin Dunning became the first person to successfully land on a moving ship by slide slipping his Sopwith Pup past the superstructure on 2 August 1917. Unfortunately, during his third attempt the engine stopped leaving no option but to crash into the sea resulting in his death.

Subsequently, the aft 18” gun was removed and a landing on deck was built in its place. The superstructure however remained in place. In this configuration Furious was used to launch a raid on the Zeppelin sheds at Tondern in Germany, the first attack by aircraft launched from a ship at sea.

Furious was extensively rebuilt between the two world wars with a full flush deck and served through the second world war as an entirely adequate aircraft carrier. Which is more than can be said for her two sisters Courageous and Glorious that were both sunk within the first twelve months of the conflict.

While most countries’ first aircraft carriers were conversions of existing ships, these were usually liners or battlecruisers, large fast ships. America would become the largest supporter of naval aviation so it’s interesting that its first aircraft carrier was an old cargo ship that used to carry coal around, and had a top speed of just 17.8mph (29 km/h).

The conversion itself appears to have been done on a budget as the lift to the flight deck stopped some eight feet above the hangar deck. The hangar deck itself was open to the elements, being the original main deck with the flight deck mounted above it and was used for the assembly of aircraft stored in the ship’s now vacant coal holds.

This arrangement meant it took around a quarter of an hour to get an aircraft to or from the flight deck, never mind the time spent getting it up to the hangar deck. Initially this let the Langley operate all of 12 aircraft.

By 1927 Langley’s air group was 36 aircraft and she was successfully carrying out mock attacks on the Panama Canal. Langley herself was converted a second time into a seaplane carrier in 1937; operating as an aircraft ferry she was sunk by Japanese aircraft in early 1942.

The Bearn was France’s first aircraft carrier and like most of the early attempts was tacked on to an already built hull. In this case although originally laid down in 1914 as a battleship she had spent most of the first world war being worked on very slowly and would not emerge as a carrier until 1927. Bearn could recover 15 aircraft in just over an hour thanks to the lack of crash barrier which meant each aircraft had to be placed in the hangar after it landed. For comparison, Glorious could manage 32 aircraft in 42 minutes despite also not having a crash barrier, while with one Saratoga could manage 40 in just under 11 and a half minutes.

In 1940, the German invasion of France saw Bearn carrying reserves of gold to Canada and she was returning with a mix of Curtiss Hawk fighters, Stinson Voyagers, and Curtiss Helldiver biplanes when France fell. Her Vichy French wartime career was most notable for losing a propeller blade in the Caribbean. Switching to the Free French side with the rest of the French Antilles, Bearn spent 1944 being converted to an aircraft ferry, managing one trip in that role before the war ended. Despite serving until 1960 she would never launch aircraft in combat.

Adapted from cargo ships that were under construction at the time of Pearl Harbour Avenger, Biter, and Dasher were small vessels of 8200 tons with an air group of up to 15 aircraft. As the ships were already half built when the conversion process began, they were less than ideal as aircraft carriers.

After sinking U-589 in an Arctic convoy Avenger was returning from the invasion of North Africa when she was hit by a torpedo from the U-155 submarine. Unfortunately, this hit the depth charge magazine, essentially an unarmoured part of the ship’s hold. The explosion destroyed the ship with the loss of 516 members of the ship’s company.

Biter fared better, surviving the war, however she managed to breakdown on her delivery trip to the UK and gain a Swordfish in the island during a landing accident the next day. Later in the war she was hit by a homing torpedo from a Swordfish that crashed astern of her.

Dasher meanwhile was at anchor near Glasgow where on the night of 27 March 1943, she blew up without warning or enemy action. With the loss of 379 crew this was one of the largest maritime disasters in British waters. The explosion was traced to issues with the fuel handling system that were rectified on subsequent escort carriers.

The Graf Zeppelin was laid down in 1936 and would be as close to a carrier as Germany would ever get. At a projected 33,000 tons and able to carry 43 aircraft the Graf Zeppelin would have been broadly comparable to an Illustrious class carrier of the Royal Navy.

Construction of the ship was stop-start however the intended aircraft did enter service. The first of which was the Fieseler Fi 167 a purpose-designed biplane torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. Obsolete when they entered service they were given to the Croatian Air Force when no use could be found for them.

The fighter element was to consist of a squadron of Messerschmitt 109s. With a narrow track undercarriage and a long V-12 engine in front of the pilot to obscure his view of the ship it is likely the accident rate on landing would have been horrific.

The Graf Zeppelin was upgraded during the war with extra anti-aircraft weaponry installed, but never became operational. She was in use as a timber store in the Baltic when captured by the advancing Soviet army in April 1945, who finally sank her in 1947.

The Japanese army and navy had a terrible relationship during the second world war. This meant that by the end of the second world war although the navy operated several aircraft carriers, the army (IJA) also had one too: the Akitsu Maru.

The Akitsu Maru was taken over by the IJA during its build and completed as an amphibious warfare vessel, similar to the modern-day Wasp class. A flight deck was built over the main deck, which itself was used for storing aircraft in the absence of a hangar.

Intended to provide air support for amphibious landings the Akitsu Maru was of limited use in the role due to the lack of arrestor gear. Instead, aircraft would fly ashore as soon as a landing ground was secured. Consequently, most of her service life saw her employed as an aircraft ferry.

The Kokusai Ki-76 spotter plane was though able to take off and land on her flight deck, as was the Kayaba Ka-1 autogyro. These were pressed into service to search for submarines and armed with 60kg depth charges to attack them, allowing the Akitsu Maru to act as an escort carrier.

This was basically what the Royal Navy were doing in the Atlantic but with a less capable air group. However, on her first mission in the role on 15 November 1944 she was hit by torpedoes from the submarine USS Queenfish and sank in three minutes.

The Kuznetsov is probably most famed for the plume of dark smoke that follows it everywhere. However, the Russian Navy further hampered the design by choosing the worst of both worlds for the launch and recovery of aircraft and equipped the ship with a ski jump and arrestor wires.

Using a ski ramp with a conventional aircraft isn’t without its advantages versus flying off a flat deck but you still need a longer run than most carriers can provide to take-off at your maximum all up mass. Which is why footage of the Kuznetsov’s aircraft operations show a limited array of weapons being carried.

Soviet doctrine preferred equipment to be capable of multiple roles, consequently, like its predecessor the Kiev class the Kuznetsov has a range of missiles including 12 launch tubes for the 7-ton Granite missile in the forward flight deck. Use of which would render the flight deck unusable for an extended period.

The main issue working against the Kuznetsov however is Soviet build quality and Russian maintenance. Since 1991 she’s deployed an average of once every 4 years. Her current refit started in 2018, has seen her dock sink, a fire break-out, and shows no signs of finishing.

Laid down in May 1940 under great secrecy as a battleship construction of the Shinano was paused in December 1941. By the Battle of Midway the shortage of fleet carriers led the Japanese Navy to order the completion of the Shinano as a carrier to provide replacement aircraft to the rest of the fleet.

At 66,000 tonnes and 266 metres in length, she was planned to carry 120 reserve aircraft while operating her own small air group of 18 Mitsubishi A7M fighters, 18 Aichi B7A torpedo bombers, and 6 Nakajima C6N reconnaissance aircraft. With events turning against the Japanese, she was finished 7 months ahead of schedule and was launched in October 1944.

Shinano left the construction yard on 28th November 1944 heading to Kure where fitting out would be completed. On the 29^th of November, four torpedoes from the USS Archerfish hit her port side where thanks to bad damage control practices and poor build quality, they caused widespread flooding which took her to the bottom seven hours later.

Thanks to the secrecy with which Shinano had been built the US Navy initially refused to believe the Archerfish’s Captain’s claim as it didn’t match with the location of any known carrier. The biggest carrier built until the USS Forrestal was launched in 1954 the Shinano failed to live up to the expectations placed on her.

Joe Coles is the author of The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes Vol 1, 2 and 3