USS Langley ( CV - 1 ) USS " Langley " ( CV - 1 / AV - 3 ) was the United States Navy ' s first aircraft carrier , converted in 1920 from the collier USS " Jupiter " ( AC - 3 ) , and also the U . S . Navy ' s first electrically propelled ship . Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built battlecruiser s " Lexington " and " Saratoga " , freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers and . " Langley " was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley , an American aviation pioneer . Following another conversion , to a seaplane tender , " Langley " fought in World War II . On 27 February 1942 , she was attacked by dive bomber s of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts . Service history . Collier . President William H . Taft attended the ceremony when " Jupiter " ' s keel was laid down on 18 October 1911 at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo , California . She was launched on 14 August 1912 sponsored by Mrs . Thomas F . Ruhm ; and commissioned on 7 April 1913 under Commander Joseph M . Reeves . Her sister ships were , which disappeared without a trace in World War I , , and , which disappeared on the same route as " Cyclops " in World War II . After successfully passing her trials , " Jupiter " embarked a United States Marine Corps detachment at San Francisco , California , and reported to the Pacific Fleet at Mazatlán Mexico on 27 April 1914 , bolstering U . S . naval strength on the Mexican Pacific coast in the tense days of the Veracruz crisis . She remained on the Pacific coast until she departed for Philadelphia , Pennsylvania on 10 October . " En route " , the collier steamed through the Panama Canal on Columbus Day , the first vessel to transit it from west to east . Prior to America ' s entry into World War I , she cruised the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico attached to the Atlantic Fleet Auxiliary Division . The ship arrived at Norfolk , Virginia on 6 April 1917 , and , assigned to the Naval Overseas Transport Service , interrupted her coaling operations by two cargo voyages to France in June 1917 and November 1918 . The first voyage transported a naval aviation detachment of 7 officers and 122 men to England . It was the first U . S . aviation detachment to arrive in Europe and was commanded by Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting , who became " Langley " ' s first executive officer five years later . " Jupiter " was back in Norfolk on 23 January 1919 whence she sailed for Brest , France on 8 March for coaling duty in European waters to expedite the return of victorious veterans to the United States . Upon reaching Norfolk on 17 August , the ship was transferred to the West Coast . Her conversion to an aircraft carrier was authorized on 11 July 1919 , and she sailed to Hampton Roads , Virginia on 12 December , where she decommissioned on 24 March 1920 . Carrier . " Jupiter " was converted into the first U . S . aircraft carrier at the Navy Yard , Norfolk , Virginia , for the purpose of conducting experiments in the new idea of seaborne aviation . On 11 April 1920 , she was renamed Langley in honor of Samuel Pierpont Langley , an American astronomer , physicist , aeronautics pioneer and aircraft engineer , and she was given hull classification symbol CV - 1 . She recommissioned on 20 March 1922 with Commander Kenneth Whiting in command . As the first American aircraft carrier , " Langley " was the scene of numerous momentous events . On 17 October 1922 , Lt . Virgil C . Griffin piloted the first plane — a Vought VE - 7 — launched from her decks . Though this was not the first time an airplane had taken off from a ship , and though " Langley " was not the first ship with an installed flight deck , this one launching was of monumental importance to the modern U . S . Navy . The era of the aircraft carrier was born introducing into the navy what was to become the vanguard of its forces in the future . With " Langley " underway nine days later , Lieutenant Commander Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier made the first landing in an Aeromarine 39B . On 18 November , Commander Whiting was the first aviator to be catapulted from a carrier ' s deck . An unusual feature of " Langley " was provision for a carrier pigeon house on the stern between the / 51 cal guns . Pigeons had been carried aboard seaplane s for message transport since World War I , and were to be carried on aircraft operated from " Langley " . The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while " Langley " was undergoing conversion . As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise , they returned to the ship ; but when the whole flock was released while " Langley " was anchored off Tangier Island , the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard . The pigeons never went to sea again and the former pigeon house became the executive officer ' s quarters ; but the early plans for conversion of " Lexington " and " Saratoga " included a compartment for pigeons . By 15 January 1923 , " Langley " had begun flight operations and tests in the Caribbean Sea for carrier landings . In June , she steamed to Washington , DC , to give a demonstration at a flying exhibition before civil and military dignitaries . She arrived at Norfolk on 13 June , and commenced training along the Atlantic coast and Caribbean which carried her through the end of the year . In 1924 , " Langley " participated in more maneuvers and exhibitions , and spent the summer at Norfolk for repairs and alterations , she departed for the west coast late in the year and arrived San Diego , California on 29 November to join the Pacific Battle Fleet . For the next 12 years , she operated off the California coast and Hawaii engaged in training fleet units , experimentation , pilot training , and tactical - fleet problems . The Langley was featured in the 1929 silent film about naval aviation The Flying Fleet . Seaplane tender . On 25 October 1936 , she put into Mare Island Navy Yard , California for overhaul and conversion to a seaplane tender . Though her career as a carrier had ended , her well - trained pilots had proved invaluable to the next two carriers , and ( commissioned on 14 December and 16 November 1927 , respectively ) . " Langley " completed conversion on 26 February 1937 and was assigned hull classification symbol AV - 3 on 11 April . She was assigned to the Aircraft Scouting Force and commenced her tending operations out of Seattle , Washington , Sitka , Alaska , Pearl Harbor , and San Diego , California . She departed for a brief deployment with the Atlantic Fleet from 1 February - 10 July 1939 , and then steamed to assume duties with the Pacific Fleet at Manila arriving on 24 September . On the entry of the U . S . into World War II , " Langley " was anchored off Cavite , Philippines . On 8 December , following the invasion of the Philippines by Japan , she departed Cavite for Balikpapan , in the Dutch East Indies . As Japanese advances continued , " Langley " departed for Australia , arriving in Darwin on 1 January 1942 . She then became part of the American - British - Dutch - Australian Command ( ABDACOM ) naval forces . Until 11 January , " Langley " assisted the Royal Australian Air Force in running anti - submarine patrol s out of Darwin . " Langley " went to Fremantle , Australia to pick up Allied aircraft and transport them to Southeast Asia . Carrying 32 P - 40 fighter s belonging to the Far East Air Force ' s 13th Pursuit Squadron ( Provisional ) , she and a convoy departed Fremantle on 22 February . " Langley " left the convoy five days later to deliver the planes to Tjilatjap ( Cilacap ) , Java . In the early hours of 27 February , " Langley " rendezvoused with her anti - submarine screen , the destroyer s USS and USS . At 11 : 40 , about south of Tjilatjap , nine Aichi D3A 1 " Val " dive bomber s of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas attacked her . The first and second Japanese strikes were unsuccessful , but in the third " Langley " took five hits and 16 crewmen were killed . The topside burst into flames , steering was impaired , and the ship developed a 10° list to port . Unable to negotiate the narrow mouth of Tjilatjap harbor , " Langley " went dead in the water , as her engine room flooded . At 13 : 32 , the order to abandon ship was passed . The escorting destroyers fired nine shells and two torpedo es into " Langley " , to ensure she didn ' t fall into enemy hands , and she sank . After being transferred to , many of her crew were lost when " Pecos " was sunk en route to Australia . Thirty - one of the thirty three pilots assigned to the 13th Pursuit Squadron were lost with the " Edsall " when she was sunk on the same day while responding to the distress calls of " Pecos " .