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Subject: 
Re: To ladder or turbolift?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.space
Date: 
Fri, 23 Feb 2001 19:04:21 GMT
Viewed: 
621 times
  
In lugnet.space, Eric Joslin writes:
In lugnet.space, James Simpson writes:

Two weeks ago I visited the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier

Ugh, that means you were in Corpus Christi.  I'm sorry. :P

   I didn't know that CV-16 was still afloat!  It was converted
   along with the other Essex-class carriers still in service in
   the 1950s to have the angled flight deck, and redeployed as
   ASW ships in the late 1950s.  I think they were redesignated for
   training in the late 1970s.  She's a sister of the Intrepid
   (in New York City) and Yorktown, among others.  It's interesting
   how quickly they recycled those names--the Lexington in Texas
   was on the slipways when its predecessor, the much larger CV-2
   Lexington, was lost at the Coral Sea...same deal with Yorktown,
   except the battle was Midway.

(Fought in WWII,
decommissioned in 1992 after serving for many years as a training ship) and
was
suprised to find an escalator within the bridge superstructure.  The • escalator
was for the top brass to use in moving from the war room in the (forgive me,
but
I'm ignorant regarding nautical terminology) bridge tower superstructure to • (I
think) the interior hangar level.

   "Conning tower," IIRC.  (The whole structure is simply
   called the 'island' on carriers.)

Eh, I was under the impression it was more for moving pilots to the flight • deck
in a timely fashion...

I doubt that the escalator existed in WWII,
but I could be wrong.  Anyone know if this is a common feature in modern
Aircraft Carriers?

   The escalator we know today was marketed in the first decade
   of the 20th century.  Some of the older department stores here
   in London have escalators that date from the 1920s and 1930s,
   so it's not surprising that the _Essex_ class ships might have
   them.  I never saw one in _Intrepid_, though.

I toured the Lex with my father, who served aboard two carriers of the same
class (the Ticonderoga and the Kearsarge) and he had more than one amusing
story about the escalators, so they were at the very least a "feature" that
crossed the class of ship as far back as the 60's and 70's (I dn't know the
exact dates of my father's tours on those vessels).

   It may have been something added when the ships were rebuilt in
   the 1950s for the angled flight deck.  As built they were poor
   for jets anyways, but the angled deck allows for faster operations.
   But at the same time, the island was rebuilt, which would have
   given an opportunity to install this sort of thing.  As most
   were done with modernisation by 1957, I could believe it.

   best

   Lindsay



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: To ladder or turbolift?
 
(...) Oh, don't worry, it's not. It's firmly cemented in place. I assure you, it does no "floating". :D eric (24 years ago, 23-Feb-01, to lugnet.space)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: To ladder or turbolift?
 
(...) Ugh, that means you were in Corpus Christi. I'm sorry. :P (...) Eh, I was under the impression it was more for moving pilots to the flight deck in a timely fashion... (...) I toured the Lex with my father, who served aboard two carriers of the (...) (24 years ago, 23-Feb-01, to lugnet.space)

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