I wouldn't dream of denying Eugene Ely's place in history. Considering how underpowered and unreliable those early flying machines were his achievements cannot be underestimated. He proved that aircraft could be launched from and land safely back aboard a Warship, following which the US Navy promptly wasted no time in.... ignoring the whole subject of Naval Aviation (that's Battleship Admirals for you...). The RN then took the lead in the development of aircraft at sea simply because war was looming and that is often a strong driver of technological advances.
Agreed 100%. Ely, along with the US Navy's help, showed it could be done and the Briitish were then first out of the making ready for that innovation for practical use in war time.
America's neutral stance helped to stifle any moves to develop 'war technology', and when the USA finally joined the war the Army and the Navy had to play catch up with Britain and France. The US Navy's Battleships joined the RNs Grand Fleet in the North Sea with the obvious brief of learning as much as possible from a fleet that had seen combat. The USN was shown the results of experience with HMS Furious and other experiments (thus saving them from years of making the same mistakes) and allowing them to make the leap to the design of USS Langley.
Again, agreed. I just wish the US would have been able to get the armored decks on its carriers earlier in WW II...i tmay have reduced losses considerably. OTOH, the added weight would have meant less fuel, arms, and aircraft...which itself may have led to more losses instead of less. Hard call there.
Now one of us is going to have to cover the Japanese, French, German and Italian angles of this story....
I believe it ddoes...most adequately. I did mention the 1st Japanese carrier in my 1st post.
You know, thinking about it, another critical metric in aircraft carrier experience is gauged by the carriers you have lost. It is a horrific metric for sure, but it comes about precisely because you are using them in somewhat large numbers in dangerous combat situations...and you learn from all of that experience, even the horrid kind. The US lost five fleet carriers, one light carrier, and six escort carriers during the war. The British lost five large/fleet carriers and three escort carriers. The UK and particularly the US lerned from this (as the victors) and went on to perfect carrier operations even more.
OTOH, the Japanese lost 24 carriers during the war...and have never built another true carrier since...although that may change soon.
If you are interested, I can give provide a list in this thread of each of those losses, when and where they occurred, and the tonnage of the carrier involved. By far the largest carriers lost were the Japanese, with several in 30,000 to 40,000 ton range, and, of course, the ill fated Shinano, super-carrier at 71,900 tons which was sunk by torpedoe while in transit for outfitting.