Model Ship Kits

Model Ship Class Supercarrier

Supercarrier Class Aircraft Carriers

USS Enterprise (CVN 65) Order Today You Save: 49.06 (22%)

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: