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USS LANGLEY
USS Langley was the first
aircraft carrier of the US Navy. She also was the first
surface ship propelled by electric motors that
eliminated the use of then standard dangerous coal
burning furnaces. Of those navy aviators who served
aboard the USS Langley, five became rear admirals, four
became vice admirals and four became four-star admirals.
As the first American
aircraft carrier, USS Langley was the scene of several
seminal events in US naval aviation. On October 17,
1922, Lieutenant Virgil C. Griffin became the first
pilot to fly from the ship's deck when he took off in
his Vought VE-7-SF biplane. This one launching was of
monumental importance to the modern US Navy. The era of
the aircraft carrier was born introducing into the navy
what was to become the vanguard of its forces in the
future. With Langley underway nine days later,
Lieutenant Commander Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier
made the first landing in an Aeromarine 39B. He
made a perfect “trap”, clearing the
rear of the deck and catching the wires exactly as
planned. That commenced the capability of launching
aircraft from and safely returning them and their pilots
safely to a ship.
A month later, on Nov. 18, 1922, Cmdr. Whiting became
the first aviator to be catapulted from a carrier’s
deck.
Since Langley was built
primarily for testing and experimentation for seaborne
aviation, there was no control tower. Her flight deck covered the entire
ship from bow to stern, earning her the nickname
“Covered Wagon”.
USS Langley served as an
unarmed test bed for flight deck and flight operations
throughout the 1920s. During this time, the Navy would
learn from its experiences on Langley how better to park
and launch aircraft more quickly, which set the stage
for the fleet aircraft carriers that followed, such
as
USS Lexington.
An unusual feature of
USS Langley was the provision for a carrier pigeon house on the
stern. Pigeons had been carried
aboard seaplanes for message transport since World War
I, and were to be carried on aircraft operated from
Langley. The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval
Shipyard while Langley was undergoing conversion. As
long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for
exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole
flock was released while Langley was anchored off
Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in
the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard. The pigeons never
went to sea again and the former pigeon house became the
executive officer's quarters.
During World War II,
On Feb. 27, 1942,
Langley was rendezvousing with destroyers USS Whipple
and USS Edsall off the coast of Indonesia. At about noon
she was attacked by nine Japanese dive bombers. She survived the first two strikes owing to her skipper's
skill at hard rudder turns, and avoided two bomb waves.
But on the third, she took five hits, and her engine
room quickly flooded. At about 13:30, Cmdr.
McConnell gave the order to abandon ship. Langley’s crew then
watched from the decks of Whipple and Edsall as the US
destroyers fired shells and torpedoes into her so she wouldn’t fall into
enemy hands.
This primarily wood model of the the
USS Langley comes two
sizes:
45" long x 10"
tall x 7" wide (1/144 scale)
$5,970. The photos are of this
model. This
model comes with
Vought VE-7F, Aeromarine 39-B, and Curtiss TS-1.
Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $500 flat rate.
33" long (1/200 scale)
$3,750 Shipping and
insurance in the contiguous USA included. Other
places: $300 flat rate.
This
model is built per commission only. We require
only a small deposit (not full amount, not even half) to start the process $900  The
remaining balance won't be due until the model is
completed,
in about six months.
Learn more about the
USS Langley here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Langley_(CV-1)
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