BIRTH OF THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER
HMS Furious opened its engines and built up speed, steaming through the waters of the Grand Fleet’s wartime base at Scapa Flow. The British warship dwarfed the flimsy aircraft now easing into a parallel course alongside it. At the controls of the Sopwith Pup was Edwin Dunning, a 25-year-old squadron commander. That day—August 2, 1917—Dunning would either make history or die in the attempt. The task he’d set for himself was said to be impossible: He was going to land an airplane on the deck of a moving vessel.
In the opening years of the 20th century, the countries of Europe were sliding toward conflict that would mean the fall of empires and the deaths of millions. A naval arms race between Britain and Germany made war inevitable, but the British Admiralty ignored some weapons that would come of age in World War I. Submarine warfare, for example, was dismissed by some senior officers, who considered it “underhand” and even “un-English.” And so little was expected of aircraft in combat that when Orville and Wilbur Wright offered the Admiralty their airplane, the pioneering brothers were politely shown the door. In the minds of higher-ups in the Admiralty, an aircraft’s only possible use was in a reconnaissance role, spotting enemy ships, and the Royal Navy’s kite balloons already provided that service.
That day Edwin Dunning would either make history or die in the attempt.
But one man of vision clearly saw the future course of naval warfare. French inventor Clément Ader predicted the. “An airplane-carrying vessel is indispensable,” Ader wrote. “These vessels will be constructed on a plan very different from what is currently used. First of all the deck will be cleared of all obstacles. It will be flat, as wide as possible without jeopardizing the nautical lines of the hull, and it will look like a landing field….Of necessity, the airplanes will be stowed below decks; they would be solidly fixed, anchored to their bases, each in its place, so they would not be affected by the pitching and rolling. Access to this deck would be by an elevator sufficiently long and wide to hold an airplane with its wings folded. A large, sliding trap would cover the hole in the deck, and it would have waterproof joints, so that neither rain nor seawater, from heavy seas, could penetrate below.”
