From The Archives: Aircraft Carrier Saratoga Launched 100 Years Ago

Built to carry 72 aircraft with the most powerful engines ever put into a vessel, the USS Saratoga (CV-3)—the U.S. Navy’s first “fast” aircraft carrier—was launched at the New York Shipbuilding Corp. shipyard in Camden, New Jersey, on April 7, 1925, and featured on the cover of our April 20 edition. 

“The ship’s dynamos and steam turbines were constructed for extraordinary speed and would carry her across the Atlantic in less than four days,” noted an accompanying article. 

“The ship is 888 ft. long, making her the longest naval craft in the world. The flying deck is long and wide enough to hold two old-time battleships set end to end.” 

Built at a cost of $45 million ($8.2 billion in current dollars), the Saratoga was commissioned in November 1927 and went on to be used in battles against the Japanese in World War II. 

Superseded after the war by newer Essex-class carriers, the Saratoga was deployed to the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Islands to test the effects of the atomic bomb on naval vessels. The carrier survived one atomic test but sank after a second on July 25, 1946.

Read the editorial article on page 432, and on page 434 the feature "The Aircraft Carrier Saratoga Launched - The Largest And Fastest Ship Of Its Kind To Be Ready Next Year".

Read the April 20, 1925, issue of Aviation.

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