Akagi (aircraft carrier)

The Akagi was an aircraft carrier serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
Only ship of her class, Akagi played a key role in the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, but it was destroyed, along with three other carriers, a few months later by the dive bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and Yorktown at the Battle of Midway.

The aircraft carrier Akagi was starts as the battlecruiser Amagi class, Kure (Japan). To meet the constraints of the Washington Treaty of 1922, he and her sistership the Amagi had to be converted into an aircraft carrier. However, Amagi was destroyed during the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, the construction of the other battle cruisers of this class (Atago and Takao) was canceled and scrapped hulls already started. Only remaining ship of her class, Akagi was launched April 22, 1925 and completed by the Yokosuka sites as one of the first major Japanese aircraft carrier March 27, 1927.

He then demonstrates the naval experiments of the Japanese Navy in the 1930s. It has a triple flight deck, not an island and a fireplace on the side of the ship and headed down.

The aircraft carrier Akagi was totally overhauled in 1935-1938, while gaining a flight deck extending over the entire length of the building and increased carrying capacity from 61-91 aircraft. Due to the increasing size of embedded devices, however, this ability was reduced in 1942. The redesign has moved the island on the port side of the vessel, which is very unusual (the only other carrier to share this feature with him his contemporary Hiryu).

The development of this type of aircraft carrier in the Imperial Navy (for Akagi like Kaga) reveals the mindset that followed the Washington Naval Treaty: the Akagi was actually designed to be fully converted liner in case of conflict: the locations of turrets, ammunition magazines, and all the equipment to receive the heavy artillery of a battleship were implemented on board the flight deck wood and the shed should be quickly removed to make room for guns. In 1935, Japanese admirals saw the aircraft carrier as the equal of the liner. The Akagi and Kaga were redesigned so as aircraft carriers full and conversion plans in battle cruiser were abandoned.