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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 84043:  USS Saipan off Indo-China, 18 April 1954

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIP TYPES -- FLEET AIRCRAFT CARRIERS --

Saipan class small aircraft carriers, (CVL 48-49)
(Fiscal Year 1944)

The success of the Independence class carriers produced two more similar ships, intended to offset expected wartime attrition. That would keep the number of small aircraft carriers at nine, allowing one to serve in a team with two larger units of the Essex and Ticonderoga classes. Built from the first as aircraft carriers, the new carriers' design was based on the hull and machinery of the 13,600 ton Baltimore class heavy cruisers, allowing better hull subdivision, improved protection, greater magazine volume, a stronger flight deck, expanded air group and slightly higher speed than in the Independence class.

Built in just two years, the first of the new small carriers, Saipan, was completed eleven months after World War II's end. She and her sister, USS Wright, served continuously through the later 1940s and into the mid-1950s, both as training carriers and in combat roles with air groups for either anti-submarine warfare or close-air support of ground forces.

When the larger Essex/Ticonderoga class carriers became available for those jobs, the less-capable Saipans were pushed into reserve and reclassified as aircraft transports. However, in the early 1960s these still relatively new ships were heavily modified for a new mission, providing seagoing command facilities for the Nation's leaders in the event of a Nuclear crisis. Wright was commissioned for that role in 1963. Saipan's command ship conversion was cancelled, but she was reconfigured as a communications relay ship, reentering service as USS Arlington in 1966. The ships' new tasks were soon overtaken by new technologies, with the emergency command function going aloft in specially-configured large transport aircraft, while Earth orbiting satellites absorbed the communications relay function. Both of the former Saipan class carriers were decommissioned for the last time in 1970.

The two ships of the Saipan class were both built at the New York Shipbuilding Coporation shipyard, Camden, New Jersey. Individual ships' construction data follows:

  • Saipan (CVL-48). Keel laid in July 1944; launched in July 1945; commissioned in July 1946.
  • Wright (CVL-29). Keel laid in August 1944; launched in September 1944; commissioned in February 1947.

    Saipan class "as-built" design characteristics:

  • Displacement: 14,500 tons (standard)
  • Dimensions: 683' 7" (length overall); 76' 8" (hull); 108' (over flight deck and projections)
  • Powerplant: 120,000 horsepower, steam turbines, four propellers, 33 knot maximum speed
  • Aircraft: planned complement of 42 planes, including 18 fighters, 12 scout-bombers and 12 torpedo planes.

    This page features limited pictorial coverage of Saipan class small aircraft carriers, with links to pages concerning individual ships.

    For coverage of other classes of U.S. Navy fleet aircraft carriers, see: Fleet Aircraft Carriers -- Overview and Special Image Selection.

    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 97612

    USS Saipan (CVL-48)


    Underway at sea, with eight FH-1 "Phantom" jet fighters on her flight deck.
    The original print is dated June 1953, but the presence of FH-1s and the general rig of the ship indicate that the photograph was actually taken during the late 1940s.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 152KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97618

    USS Wright (CVL-49)


    Operating on training duty, with six SNJ "Texan" aircraft on deck lined up for takeoff, circa the later 1940s or early 1950s.
    The photo's original caption reads "The stage is set for the final scene of Basic Training: the flight students will qualify six carrier landings in SNJ 'Texans' and the curtain will descend on the graduation finale."

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 113KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97617

    USS Wright (CVL-49)


    Underway circa the mid-1950s, with about eighteen U.S. Marine Corps AD "Skyraider" aircraft parked on her flight deck.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 106KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 84043

    USS Saipan (CVL-48)


    Off Tourane (Danang), Indo-China, on 18 April 1954, just prior to launching twenty-five AU-1 "Corsair" aircraft, which were flown ashore for delivery to the French.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97621

    USS Wright (CC-2)


    Underway, 17 June 1963.
    Note the extensive array of large communications antennas installed on the ship's former flight deck.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97623

    USS Wright (CC-2)


    Underway at sea, September 1963.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 114KB; 200 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97625

    USS Arlington (AGMR-2)


    Underway, circa 1967.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     

    For more views of Saipan class small aircraft carriers, see:

  • Saipan (CVL-48); and
  • Wright (CVL-49).

    For coverage of other classes of U.S. Navy fleet aircraft carriers, see: Fleet Aircraft Carriers -- Overview and Special Image Selection.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 27 October 2001