Aircraft carrier
Warship that serves as a seagoing airbase Four modern aircraft carriers of various types—USS John C. Stennis , Charles de Gaulle (French Navy), USS John F. Kennedy , helicopter carrier HMS Ocean —and escort vessels, 2002 From bottom to top: Spanish light V/STOL carrier Príncipe de Asturias , amphibious assault ship USS Wasp , fleet carrier USS Forrestal , and light V/STOL carrier HMS Invincible , showing size differences of late 20th century carriers, 1991 An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. [1] Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry n...