USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy.
USS Hornet (CV-8) shortly after completion
Hornet cruising off Hampton Roads in October 1941
A B-25 taking off from Hornet
Hornet under attack during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
Yorktown-class aircraft carrier
The Yorktown class was a class of three aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy and completed shortly before World War II, the Yorktown (CV-5), Enterprise (CV-6), and Hornet (CV-8). They immediately followed Ranger, the first U.S. aircraft carrier built as such, and benefited in design from experience with Ranger and the earlier Lexington class, which were conversions into carriers of two battlecruisers that were to be scrapped to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty, an arms limitation accord.
USS Enterprise
Enterprise (left) and Yorktown under construction at Newport News, c. 1936
Enterprise and Hornet underway in May 1942
Enterprise laid up in 1958