French aircraft carrier Béarn
Béarn was an aircraft carrier converted from an incomplete Normandie-class battleship for the Marine nationale during the 1920s. Entering service in 1928, the navy intended to use her to develop tactics and techniques for carrier aviation. The only aircraft carrier France produced until after World War II, the ship played a minor role in early stages of the war, training in home waters and conducting pilot training.
Aerial view of Béarn
Béarn without her armament fitted
The carrier conducting landing trials in April–June 1927 with a Gourdou-Leseurre GL.22ET.1 trainer
Béarn before her conversion into an aircraft transport
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not landed on a carrier. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increases the time of availability on the combat zone.
Four modern aircraft carriers of various types—USS John C. Stennis, Charles de Gaulle (French Navy), USS John F. Kennedy, helicopter carrier HMS Ocean—and escort vessels, 2002
Comparison of aircraft carriers
French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (rear), and US Navy carrier USS Ronald Reagan conducting joint operations in the Persian Gulf; both with the CATOBAR configuration.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) a United States Navy fleet carrier, also often referred to as a supercarrier, seen here underway in 2019 crossing the Atlantic.