Nuclear Carrier

Prerequisites

Requires:

Nuclear Power

Summary

Can Transport up to 5 aircraft

Gameplay

The Aircraft Carrier extends the range of air units by providing them with a mobile landing strip. Fighters, Interceptors, Bombers, Stealth Fighters and Stealth Bombers can both land on and launch from the Aircraft Carrier.

Historical

The origins of the modern aircraft carrier date back to 1910, when an American civilian pilot, Eugene Ely, flew a plane off a specially built platform attached to the deck of the U.S. cruiser Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia. Ely then performed the first carrier landing, on the quarterdeck of the battleship Pennsylvania, in San Francisco, California on January 18, 1911. By using wires attached to sandbags, he was able to stop his plane quickly. The British, Japanese and U.S. navies began to develop the first true carriers with unobstructed flight decks but the war ended before they could see battle. The aircraft carrier came of age in World War II as they began to prove themselves more versatile, effective and destructive than battleships and battle cruisers for naval combat.

In the beginning of World War II, planes dive-bombing and torpedo bombing from carriers did not have enough velocity or destructive power to penetrate battleship armor. By the end of the war, advances in aircraft and weapons technology finally gave carrier-based planes the power they needed to sink even the largest Yamato-class battleships of the Japanese fleet. The long reign of the battleship ended when U.S. carrier-based planes sunk the Musashi in October 1944 and the Yamato in 1945. Carriers continued to be the most formidable ship in the world for well into the 21st century.