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MIDWAY CLASS AIRCRAFT CARRIER
MODEL
The Midway
class was a class of three United States Navy aircraft
carriers. Although they were intended for the US Pacific
fleet in World War II, the lead ship of the
class, Midway, was not commissioned until 10 September
1945, eight days after the Surrender of Japan.
The Midway class was conceived in 1940 to determine the
effect of including an armored flight deck on a carrier
the size of the Essex class.
The resulting calculations showed that the effect would
be a reduction of air group size—the resulting ship
would have an air group of 64,compared to 90-100 for the
standard Essex-class fleet carriers.
The concept went to finding a larger carrier that could
support both deck armor and a sufficiently large air
group. The weight-savings needed to armor the flight
deck were achieved by removing the planned
cruiser-caliber battery of 8-inch guns and reducing the
5-inch antiaircraft battery from dual to single mounts.
Unlike the
Royal Navy's aircraft carriers, for which the armored
deck was part of the ship structure, the Midway class
retained their "strength deck" at the hangar deck level
and the armored flight deck was part of
the superstructure. They would be the last USN carriers
to be so built.
While the Essex-class carriers had eight main
engineering compartments, the Midway-class had 26. More
extensive use of electric arc-welding than in previous
warships reduced the weight by about 10 percent of what
would have been required for riveted structural
assembly.
The resulting Midway class carriers were very large,
with the ability to accommodate more planes than any
other carrier in the U.S. fleet (30–40 more aircraft
than the Essex class.) However, the beam of the Midway
class carriers did not allow the ships to pass through
the Panama Canal.
These
1,000-foot-long warships were once the largest carriers
afloat, though at 45,000 tons they had a displacement
about two-thirds that of the largest contemporary
battleships. When operating at sea the ships were
refueled every three days, burning approximately 100,000
gallons of oil a day.
All three ships were essential to the Navy's strategic
nuclear weapons role in Europe. Until the availability
of the Forrestal-class, they were the premier commands
sought by senior naval aviators.
They were "admiral makers" for many of their
commanding officers.
The USS Midway played key roles in the Cold War. In 1946
it became the first American carrier to operate in the
midwinter sub-Arctic. The following year Midway became
the only ship to launch a captured German V-2 rocket.
The trial’s success became the dawn of naval missile
warfare. Just two years after that, Midway sent a large
patrol plane aloft to demonstrate that atomic bombs
could be delivered by a carrier.
During the
1950s, all three ships underwent the SCB-110
modernization program (similar to SCB-125 for the
Essex-class carriers), which added angled decks, an
enclosed hurricane bow, steam catapults, mirror landing
systems, an aft deck-edge elevator, and other
modifications that allowed them to operate a new breed
of large, heavy naval jets.
All three of the Midway class made combat deployments in
the Vietnam War. In her first first combat
deployment in 1965, USS Midway's aircraft shot down
three MiGs, including the first air kill of the war.
However, 17 Midway aircraft were lost to enemy fire
during this cruise.
In the
late 1960s, USS Midway underwent an extensive
modernization and reconstruction program, which was
expensive and thus was not repeated on the USS Franklin
D. Roosevelt and the USS Coral Sea.
By the 1970s, all three retained the McDonnell Douglas
F-4 Phantom II in their air wings. The new Grumman F-14
Tomcat fleet defense fighter or the S-3
Viking anti-submarine jet were to big for the carriers.
In 1973, as potential threats to the Arabian oil supply
grew, USS Midway was transferred to Yokosuka, Japan,
making it the first American
carrier home ported abroad.
During Operation Desert Storm, the USS Midway was one
of the six aircraft carriers deployed. She served
as the flagship for naval air
forces in the Gulf and launched more than 3,000
combat missions with no losses.
A few months
after the campaign, the last of the class left Navy
service. The ship is now open to the public as a museum
in San Diego, California.
USS Midway
played an important role in two humanitarian operations.
Over a chaotic two day period during the fall of Saigon
in April 1975, she was a floating base for large Air
Force helicopters which evacuated more than 3,000
desperate refugees. In 1991, she helped evacuate
civilian personnel from Clark Air Force Base in the
Philippines after the 20th century’s largest eruption of
nearby Mount Pinatubo.
This
primarily wood model portrays the USS Midway in her
latest configuration (with angled deck and two 8-cell
Sea Sparrow launchers, two Phalanx CIWS.) It includes
six McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, six Vought A-7
Corsair, four Grumman EA-6B Prowler, two Grumman E-2
Hawkeye, two Kaman SH-2 Seasprite, two Sikorsky SH-3 Sea
King, two Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk.
17.5"
(1/700 scale) $2,390 Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $200 flat rate.
27" $2,950 Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $300 flat rate.
33" long
(1/350 scale) $3,690 Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $350 flat rate. One will be completed
soon.
58" long
(1/200 scale) $5,930 Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $600 flat rate.
This Midway class aircraft carrier model is built per
commission only. We require only a small deposit to start the process $900. The
remaining balance won't be due until the model is
completed, in
several months.
If you
want the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, USS Coral Sea, or
the Midway before modification, just let us know.
Don't be fooled by some
model makers out there who freely claim their models
"museum grade." Their
ships are wrong on many counts. The hull is horrible.
Plenty
are wrong; many are missing. Go here to learn more: how
to choose an aircraft carrier model.
Learn more about the
Midway class here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway-class_aircraft_carrier
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