US Cold War Aircraft Carriers: Forrestal, Kitty Hawk and Enterprise Classes

Supercarriers became the ultimate in aircraft carrier design after World War II. Naval aviation allows fleets to project mobile power across vast distances, and these floating cities epitomize this mission design.

The Forrestal class (Forrestal, CV-59; Saratoga, CV-60; Ranger, CV-61 and Independence, CV-62) was the first completed class of US Navy supercarriers, so-named for their 25 percent size increase over the World War II-era carriers such as the Midway class, and the strength of their...