Lexington-class aircraft carrier (Alternity)

The Lexington-class aircraft carriers were a trio of carriers operated by the US Navy from 1926 to 1946. Originally designed as a class of six battlecruisers following WWI, growing interest in naval aviation, and the abortive Washington Naval Treaty of 1921 compelled planners to come up with a design for the USN's first fleet carriers. Three of the ships - Lexington, Saratoga, and Constitution (renamed Concord) were converted to carriers based on this design.

For the fifteen years leading up to World War II, the three ships served as training platforms for aspiring Navy pilots and proved their worth to the Navy, who proceeded to order a class of four purpose-built fleet carriers - the Yorktown class, on top of the Nova Scotia-class conversion Lake Erie. At 36,000 tons, the Lexington-class remained the USN's largest fleet carriers until the purpose-built Midway-class was first commissioned in 1945. Class leader Lexington was one of the three US carriers present at the first carrier battle in history (the Battle of the Coral Sea), and served clear through to the end of the war. She was converted to a museum in Boston Harbor in 1951. Saratoga twice survived torpedo attacks, and likewise served through to war's end; she was decommissioned and was sunk by the Operation Crossroads nuclear test in the South Pacific in 1947. Concord was crippled in the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 8, 1942, and was scuttled by an American destroyer to prevent capture by Japanese forces.

Legacy

 * In early June 1942, following the Navy's official announcement of Concord's sinking, a group of workers from the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she had been built sent a request to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, requesting a name change for one of the new Essex-class fleet carriers then-under construction. Carrier CV-16, USS Cabot, was officially renamed Concord on June 16. She served for the remainder of the war and remained in Navy service until 1991, when she was converted to a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas.