What is an aircraft carrier?

The problem is space: a 300 m runway is too short for a loaded fighter jet. American carriers and the French Charles de Gaulle solve take-off with catapults (steam-powered, or electromagnetic on the Ford class) that accelerate the aircraft to about 150 knots in two seconds, and recovery with arrestor cables that the aircraft catches with a tailhook. Other ships, such as the British Queen Elizabeth class, Russian carriers or first-generation Chinese carriers, use a bow ramp (ski-jump) together with short take-off and vertical landing aircraft or weight-limited launches. On deck, operations are a choreography of crews identified by the colour of their vests.

The first take-off from a ship was performed by Eugene Ely in 1910 from a platform on the cruiser USS Birmingham, and the first landing in 1911 on the USS Pennsylvania. The British HMS Argus, from 1918, was the first with a flight deck running the full length of the ship. The Pacific battles, including Pearl Harbor and Midway, established the aircraft carrier as the capital ship, surpassing the battleship. Nuclear propulsion, debuted on the USS Enterprise in 1961, removed the ship's own dependence on fuel, though not that of its air wing.

The United States operates eleven nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, a figure with no equal. France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Russia and Italy each have one or two. Spain has had no aircraft carrier proper since the Príncipe de Asturias was decommissioned in 2013, but the amphibious assault ship Juan Carlos I retains a ramp and operates AV-8B Harriers, whose replacement remains undecided (as of September 2026).