Model Ship Kits

Archive for the ‘Supercarrier’ Category

The famous and historic name Enterprise dates back to the Revolutionary War. The 7 Naval predecessors have carried the famous name to date. To date the most decorated of the 7 is the aircraft carrier nick named “The Big E”. During all the battles and damage she received in World War II she never became inoperative during her 4 years in the Pacific. The Big E was the only ship in U.S. Naval history to ever receive both the Navy and Presidential Unit Citations.

The Big E served as the flag ship for Admiral W.F. Halsey one of the many heroes of World War II. The aircraft carrier earned 20 battle stars out of a possible 22 during World War II.

The very first ship to carry the famous name Enterprise went to a sloop-of-war. The ship was captured from the British in 1775 and refitted for service in Lake Champlain. She was commanded by Captain Dickenson attached to General Benedict Arnold’s squadron. She joined in the engagement with the British in October of 1776 on Lake Champlain where the American forces were defeated. In this Battle the British destroyed or captured 10 American ships. The Enterprise managed to escape.

The second ship the carried the name Enterprise was a 135 ton schooner. This ship was known as “The Lucky Enterprise”. She carried 70 men and 12 guns built in Baltimore, Maryland in 1979. Sometime later she was refit and converted to a brig of 165 tons. The rebuilt ship then carried 90 men and 14 guns. On one of cruises at sea that lasted 8 months in the war with France she had 5 battle actions and captured 19 vessels. The only small cruiser retained by the Navy after the French War. She was rebuilt again and protected our coast from 1811 through 1814. Serving up through July of 1823 when she was lost Little Curacao.

The third ship to carry the name Enterprise was a 194 ton schooner with 10 guns and built in New York in 1831. She cruised on Brazil station from 1832 to 1833 and Brazil and East India stations from 1834 to 1844. In 1845 she was sold in Boston.

The forth ship carrying the name Enterprise was a 10 gun schooner that served the Navy from 1831 through 1845. Her primary duty was suppressing the African slave trade.

The fifth ship carrying the name Enterprise was a formidable ship of 1,375 tons with 14 guns. She was built for the U.S. Navy in Portsmouth Navy Yard by John H. Griffith. After taking 2 years to build her she was launched in June of 1874. The ship did not receive her commissioned until March of 1877. In 1891 after many years of service she was detached to become a cadet training ship. Turned over to Massachusetts as a school ship in Boston until 1909 when she was returned to the Navy and stricken from the Naval register and sold later in October.

The sixth ship to carry the name Enterprise was a 16 ton motor patrol boat bought in 1917. She had a one pound gun and a machine gun mounted on her deck. She carried a crew of eight men. She served as a patrol ship in the Second Naval District for two years until being sold to the Bureau of Fisheries in 1919.

The seventh ship The Big E CV-6 successfully serving through World War II was placed out of commission and in reserve in 1947. She was stricken from the Naval Registry in 1956. The eight and her successor The Big E CVN-65 was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier also built by Newport News.

Supercarrier Class Aircraft Carriers

Aircraft carriers of the largest type are given the unofficial term “Supercarrier” generally referring to Aircraft carriers displacing over 70,000 long tons.

Not many countries operate medium aircraft carriers like the Charles de Gaulle, we see more light Aircraft carriers around the 20,000 ton class like the HMS Illustrious.

Supercarriers held the title along with some oil tankers as the largest ships in the world until the more recent cruise ships.

The newer mammoth ships over 1000’ ft long like the Voyager class cruise ships and even larger Freedom class which are 1,020 ft. long and are more than 137,000 gross tons. MS Voyager of the Seas and the larger Queen Mary 2 are the largest ships in the world today.

The New York Times described the HMS Ark Royal in 1938 as a Supercarrier first. The unofficial classification moved to the Midway class carriers in 1943 double in tonnage 45,000 ton carriers. Then latter on post war Supercarriers migrated to the USS Forrestal proposed as standard for the United States.

The USS Forrestal displaced 60,000 tons dubbed by the American press as the first operational Supercarrier.

Some may argue that the armored Japanese carrier Shinano of World War II might be considered a Supercarrier. Possibly but she lacked some of the defining characteristics like arrestor wires, angled flight decks and most of all catapults.

Her job was only an auxiliary support carrier and was never meant to be a multi-purpose fleet strike carrier like the US carriers. Like the USS Kitty Hawk, USS Forrestal class and USS Enterprise class are designated.

The Ulyanovsk of the Soviet Union would have been comparable in size the the American Supercarriers but at 40% complete they canceled her in 1991.

She would have been an 85,000 ton nuclear aircraft carrier.  This occurred due to post cold-war funding cuts as well as the planned sister ships to the Ulyanovsk.

We have located some of the top listing for these Supercarriers you may want to add to your collection.

You can find most all of the the Supercarriers are available in the:

Model Ship Store.

As more become available they will be added so check back often.