List of aircraft carrier classes of the United States Navy On November 14 , 1910 , pilot Eugene Burton Ely took off in a Curtiss plane from the bow of and later landed a Curtiss Model D on on 18 January 1911 . In fiscal year ( FY ) 1920 , Congress approved a conversion of collier into a ship designed for launching and recovering of airplanes at sea — the first aircraft carrier of the United States Navy . More aircraft carriers were approved and built , including the , the first class of aircraft carriers in the United States Navy designed and built as aircraft carriers from the keel . The United States declared war on Japan following the attack of 7 December 1941 on Pearl Harbor . The two nations revolutionized naval warfare in the course of the next four years ; several of the most important sea battles were fought without either fleet coming within sight of the other . Most of the fleet carriers were built according to prewar designs , but the demand for air protection was so intense that two new classes were developed : light carriers ( designated CVL ) , built on modified cruiser hulls , and escort carriers ( CVE ) , whose main function was to protect Atlantic convoys from German U - boat s . During the postwar period , carrier technology made many advances . The angled flight deck was adopted in 1955 . The first " supercarrier " was commissioned in 1955 ( although an earlier plan had been canceled by the Secretary of Defense ) , and the first nuclear - powered carrier in 1961 , all during the Cold War . Also , a record for crossing the Pacific Ocean was set by a U . S . Navy carrier during the Korean War . Carriers recovered spacecraft after splashdown , including the " Mercury - Redstone 3 " and " Apollo 11 " missions . A new class , the , is planned for 2015 . In 2007 , the last conventionally powered ( non - nuclear ) carrier was decommissioned . Pre – World War II . On November 14 , 1910 , a 24 year old civilian pilot , Eugene Burton Ely , took off in a 50 horsepower Curtiss plane from a wooden platform built over the bow of the cruiser ; later , on January 18 , 1911 , Ely landed a Curtiss Model D on a platform aboard . The Naval Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1920 provided funds for the conversion of into a ship designed for the launching and recovery of airplanes at sea — the United States Navy ' s first aircraft carrier . Renamed , she was commissioned in 1922 . Commander Kenneth Whiting was placed in command . In 1924 , " Langley " reported for duty with the Battle Fleet , ending two years as an experimental ship . In 1922 , Congress also authorized the conversion of the unfinished battlecruiser s and the as permitted under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty , signed in February 1922 . The keel of , the first American ship designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier , was laid down in 1931 , and the ship was commissioned in 1934 . Following " Ranger " and before the entry of the United States into World War II , four more carriers were commissioned . was essentially an improved version of " Ranger " . The others were the three ships of the . World War II . The Imperial Japanese Navy struck Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 , but none of the Pacific Fleet ' s aircraft carriers were in the harbor . Because a large fraction of the navy ' s battleship fleet was put out of commission by the attack , the undamaged aircraft carriers were forced to become the load - bearers of the early part of the war . The first aircraft carrier offensive of the U . S . Navy came on 1 February 1942 , when the carriers Enterprise and Yorktown , attacked the Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands . The Battle of the Coral Sea became the first sea battle in history in which neither opposing fleet saw the other . The Battle of Midway started as a Japanese offensive on Midway Atoll met by an outnumbered U . S . carrier force , and resulted in a U . S . victory . The Battle of Midway was the turning point in the Pacific War . In 1943 , new designations for carriers were established , limiting the CV designation to the , the , and the . The new designations were CVB ( Aircraft carrier , large ) for the carriers being built , and CVL ( Aircraft carriers , small ) for the class built on light cruiser hulls . The same directive reclassified escort carriers as combatant ships , and changed their symbol from ACV to CVE . By the end of the war , the Navy had access to around 100 carriers of varying sizes . On September 2 , 1945 , Japan signed the surrender agreement aboard the , ending World War II . Training ships . During World War II , the United States Navy purchased two Great Lakes side - wheel paddle steamers and converted them into freshwater aircraft carrier training ships . Both vessels were designated with the hull classification symbol IX and lacked hangar decks , elevators or armament s . The role of these ships was for the training of pilots for carrier take - offs and landings . Together the " Sable " and " Wolverine " trained 17 , 820 pilots in 116 , 000 carrier landings with 51 , 000 landings on " Sable " alone . Cold War . Aircraft carrier technology underwent many changes during the Cold War . The first of the 45000 ton carriers , the was commissioned eight days after the end of World War II , on September 10 . A larger ship was planned , and in 1948 , President Harry Truman approved the construction of a " supercarrier " , a 65000 ton aircraft carrier to be named ; however , the project was canceled in April 1949 by the Secretary of Defense . The Navy ' s first supercarriers came later , in 1955 , with the . 1953 saw the first test of an angled - deck carrier , the . The " N " suffix was added to the designation system to represent nuclear powered carriers in 1956 . The first carrier to receive this suffix was the , commissioned in 1961 . The last conventionally powered carrier , , was commissioned in 1968 and was decommissioned in 2007 . The Korean War began June 25 , 1950 , and the need for planes and troops was urgent . Returning from Korea , the made a record trip across the Pacific — 7 days , 10 hours , and 36 minutes . In 1952 , all carriers with designations " CV " or " CVB " were reclassified as attack carriers and given the sign " CVA " . As the " Mercury - Redstone 3 " mission ended , the recovered Commander Alan B . Shepard , the first American in space , on May 5 , 1961 . Another aircraft carrier , the , recovered the " Apollo 11 " astronauts after their splashdown . " Apollo 11 " was the first manned landing on the moon , and was composed of astronauts Neil Armstrong , Buzz Aldrin , and Michael Collins . In 1975 , the first was commissioned ; the " Nimitz " class are the largest warships in the world ; and is the only aircraft carrier class in commission with the U . S . Navy ( except for the , which , though still technically in commission as of August 2013 , is currently being dismantled ) . Construction and commissioning of the " Nimitz " class continued after the Cold War . Also , in 1975 , the U . S . Navy simplified the carrier designations — CV , CVA , CVAN , CVB , CVL — into CV for conventionally powered carriers and CVN for nuclear - powered carriers . After the Cold War . When the Cold War ended in 1991 , the U . S . Navy had conventionally powered carriers from the , , and classes active , along with the ; and the nuclear class and the ; however , all of the conventional carriers have been decommissioned . Construction of the " Nimitz " - class continued after the Cold War , and the last " Nimitz " - class carrier was commissioned in 2009 . The next class of supercarriers — the — is planned to launch the first ship in 2015 . The new carriers will be stealthier , and feature A1B reactor s , electromagnetic catapults , advanced arresting gear , reduced crew requirements , and a hull design based upon that of the " Nimitz " class . Ten carriers are planned for the " Gerald R . Ford " class . Escort Carriers . During World War II , the U . S . Navy built escort carrier s in large numbers for patrol work , and scouting and escorting convoys . Escort carriers , based on merchant ship hulls , were smaller than aircraft carrier s ; escort carrier crews referred to the ships as " Jeep carriers " , the press called them " baby flat tops " . The escort carriers had lighter armor than aircraft carriers , were slower , had less defensive armament , and fewer aircraft . This smaller variant of carriers was designated " CVE " ; a common joke amongst crews was " CVE " meant " Combustible , Vulnerable and Expendable " . Early in the war , German submarine s and aircraft were interfering with shipping . The worst losses occurred far at sea — out of the reach of land - based air forces — leading the Royal Navy to experiment with catapult - launching fighter aircraft from merchant ships , a somewhat successful approach . However , the number of planes was still limited , so the United Kingdom appealed to the United States for help . Before World War II started , the U . S . Navy had contemplated converting merchant ships to small aircraft carriers for this purpose , so the quick solution was to build escort carriers on merchant ship hulls . The first escort carrier , the , was converted from a freighter . A shortage of merchant ship hulls caused four escort carriers — , , , and — to be built on oil tanker hulls . In total , 78 escort carriers were built and launched from June 1941 to April 1945 .