- That test was the start of US naval aviation, which over the following century has become one of the most important aspects of warfare.
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10 incredible moments in the storied 109-year history of aircraft carrier aviation
The Navy launched an airplane from a ship for the first time on November 14, 1910.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet jet flies over the USS Gerald R. Ford as the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier tests its new launch and flight arrest systems
Exactly 109 years ago Thursday, carrier aviation was born from an experiment that would eventually evolve into one of the most important aspects of modern warfare.
Here are some impressive moments in the history of carrier aviation.
Eugene Burton Ely flew a Curtiss Pusher biplane off the deck of the USS Birmingham on November 14, 1910, marking the first time the Navy had launched a plane from a warship, which came only seven years after the Wright Brothers' first flights. This moment can be considered the birth of carrier aviation.
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US Navy
Source: Business Insider
The following year, on January 18, 1911, Eugene B. Ely landed on the USS Pennsylvania, completing the first successful landing on a stationary warship.
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US Navy
Source: Business Insider
British Royal Naval Air Service pilot Edwin H. Dunning successfully landed an aircraft on a moving warship, the HMS Furious, for the first time on August 2, 1917. He died five days later on a follow-up attempt, demonstrating the challenge of landing on a ship at sea.
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United Kingdom Government/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
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Source: BBC
The first plane specifically designed to take off from an aircraft carrier and drop torpedoes was the Sopwith Cuckoo. The plane, which lacked the ability to land on a carrier, completed its first flight in June 1917. As this technology evolved, it would play a critical role in future battles.
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Imperial War Museums collection/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Source: Royal Air Force Museum
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The Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber, unquestionably the most important carrier-based aircraft in the Pacific Theater of World War II, entered service with the US military in 1940. The bomber carried a 1,000-pound bomb and was responsible for sinking 300,000 tons of enemy shipping, everything from submarines to battleships to carriers, reportedly more than any other Allied aircraft.
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US Navy
Source: Smithsonian
Sixteen B-25 Mitchell medium bombers took off from the deck of the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942 for an attack on Tokyo. The aircraft that took part in the "Doolittle Raid" conducted the first raid on the Japanese home islands.
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US Navy
US Navy Lt. Edward Butch OHare became the first naval aviator to win the Medal of Honor for defending the American aircraft carrier USS Lexington from a wave of Japanese heavy bombers on February 20, 1942. He took on a formation of nine Japanese bombers, shooting down roughly half a dozen enemy planes. He would later lead the first nighttime mission from a carrier on Nov. 26, 1943. O'Hare was killed during that mission.
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AP
Source: NPR
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought May 4-8, 1942, was the first naval battle in history in which the two opposing naval surface forces never came within sight of one another, highlighting the true warfighting range of carrier-based fighters and bombers.
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US Navy
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On October 30, 1963, a C-130 Hercules pulled off the seemingly impossible, landing on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. There in the North Atlantic, the C-130 became the heaviest aircraft to ever land on an aircraft carrier.
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US Navy
Source: The Aviationist
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A carrier version of the F-35, the most expensive aircraft in history, landed on an aircraft carrier for the first time in November 2014. Four years later, an American F-35B conducted its first combat operation from the deck of a US Navy amphibious assault ship.
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U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin by Andy Wolfe
Source: US Navy
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