However, the USN still wanted fleet carriers with armored decks but any new design would still have to be capable of a speed of 32 knots. Nothing increases the displacement of a ship’s design like the requirement for high speed. To allow sufficient space for the machinery plant required to propel an armored fleet carrier at a speed of at least 32 knots would require a huge leap in displacement and size over the ships of the Essex class. There were very few yards capable of building ships of the great size needed for contemplated armored deck fleet carrier. The USN was planning on building a new battleship design of the Montana class but with the start of the war and the concurrent decrease in the role of the battleship with increase in the role of the carrier, the Montanas went to the back burner. The yards slated to build the Montanas could be tasked with building the new carrier design instead. Not all of the large yards could be engaged in building new carriers, as the navy still needed to keep some of the largest dry docks available for repair of damaged warships. However, on August 7, 1942, two days before the invasion of Guadacanal and Tulagi, the first armored deck giant was ordered at Newport News and was designated CVB-41. The name selected for the new behemoth was USS Midway, selected in October 1944, after the over whelming carrier victory that had occurred only two months before the order for the ship. The name Coral Sea was chosen for CVB-43 in September 1944 and CVB-42 was not named until April 29, 1945, when she was named Franklin D. Roosevelt after the President who had died on April 12, 1945.
On January 21, 1943 the second of the class was ordered from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On June 14, 1943 two more carriers were ordered, as CVB-43 and CVB-44 were ordered from Newport News . To free up space in the large docks for this construction and for repair of war damage, the Montana class battleships were finally dropped on July 21, 1943. The USN forecast two more CVBs for 1945 construction plans, CVB-56 and CVB-57, for a total of six of the new design. The CVB-44 order was cancelled at the end of 1943, when it was realized that this new design would take some time to build. CVB-56 and CVB-57 were cancelled on March 27, 1945. Although this very large, complex design, took longer to build than an Essex , Midway and FDR still finished in a comparatively fast period of time. Midway was laid down on October 27, 1943 and commissioned on September 10, 1945 and FDR was laid down on December 1, 1943 and commissioned on October 27, 1945. The Coral Sea was the last of the three to be laid down on July 10, 1944. With the end of the war construction on her slowed to a peace time tempo and she did not go into commission until October 1, 1947.
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The large size of the hull created a very large hangar and these ships could pack a huge air group when completed. Different loads were calculated depending upon the mix of aircraft carried. One variant was 97 F4U Corsairs and 48 SB2C Helldivers for a total of 145. Another later load called for 27 F8F Bearcats, 32 twin engined F7F Tigercats and 73 F4U Corsairs for a total of 132. Carrying only twin engined F7Fs, she still could pack 82 of these large aircraft into the hangar. Maximum load of single piston aircraft was calculated at 153. The hangar was 764 feet long and at its narrowest at the stack trunking, 92 feet wide. The flight deck was 932 feet in length and 113 feet in width, except it narrowed to 107 feet at the island. Because of its width it was thought capable of landing two aircraft at once but this certainly would have been a desperation measure
