A Look at America’s First Aircraft Carrier

By Katie Lange, Defense Media Activity

Aircraft carriers are the largest warships on the sea, and the U.S. Navy’s carriers are considered the world’s most elite. They’re so big they have their own ZIP code, and their reach and technological sophistication are unrivaled across the world.

On this date 96 years ago, the first aircraft carrier – the USS Langley – was commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia. The carrier had been converted from the collier USS Jupiter, which was the Navy’s first surface ship propelled by electric motors.

USS Langley in the 1920s. Official Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives

The Wright Connection

Cmdr. Kenneth Whiting was the Langley’s executive officer. He was a submarine commander turned aviator who was one of the last to take personal training from famed aviator Orville Wright, one of the two brothers credited with inventing, building and flying the world’s first airplane.

The Langley was named for Samuel Pierpont Langley, a former U.S. Naval Academy assistant professor who eventually became secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was also a massive aviation enthusiast. Ironically, Langley had the same spirit as the famed Wright brothers, but never quite had their success. He built his own airplane that he tried on several occasions to launch off ships.

President Warren G. Harding with Navy Cmdr. Kenneth Whiting, Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work and RAdm. William A. Moffett on the flight deck of USS Langley, 1922-23. Navy photo, now in the collections of the National Archives

While he didn’t succeed, he did inspire the Navy’s desire to launch and land aircraft from ships at sea. Sailors took up where he left off.