Timeline for aircraft carrier service Aircraft carriers have their origins during the days of World War I . The earliest experiments constisted of fitting temporary " flying off " platforms to the gun turrets of the warships of several nations , notably the United States and the United Kingdom . The first ship to be modified with a permanent flight deck was the light cruiser which initially had a single flying off deck forward of the original superstructure . Subsequently she was modified with a separate " landing on " deck aft and later with a full flush deck . Other ships , often liners , were modified to have full flush flight decks , being the first to have such modification begun . Those first faltering steps gave little indication of just how important the aircraft carrier was to prove to be . During the inter - war years ( between the World Wars ) , Japan , the United Kingdom and the United States built up significant carrier fleets so that by the beginning of World War II , they had 18 carriers between them . The 1940 Battle of Taranto and the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor in retrospect showed the world that the aircraft carrier was to be the most important ship in the modern fleet . Today , aircraft carriers are the capital ship s of the navies they serve in , and in the case of modern US " supercarriers " , they embark an airgroup that is effectively a small air force . This timeline is an attempt to provide a unified chronology of key dates in carrier service . Aircraft carriers often serve their navies for many decades and this chronology enables the reader to track the progress of the carrier as it has developed alongside the evolution of aircraft for nearly a hundred years . Pre - carrier history . 1907 1910 1911 1912 World War I . 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 Between the wars . 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 World War II . 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Post - war 1945 – 1949 . 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 – 1959 . 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 – 1969 . 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 – 1979 . 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 – 1989 . 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 – 1999 . 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 – 2009 . 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 – present . 2010 2011 2012 2013 Footnotes . For most carriers , the dates listed here are those when the carrier was laid down , launched , commissioned , decommissioned and disposed of . If the carrier was a conversion from another ship , then the first date listed is when she was taken in hand to be converted ; however , if a carrier was subsequently redesignated , its history is followed until disposal . The first time a ship is named in the list , it is linked to the relevant page within Wikipedia ; if the ship was renamed , the first instance of the new name is also linked . Additionally , key relevant historical dates are interspersed with the ship - related dates to provide context . For the purposes of this timeline , an aircraft carrier is a commissioned naval ship with at least one permanent flush deck designed for the launch and recovery of fixed - wing aircraft . This timeline does not include ships with temporary landing or take - off platforms , vessels designed for helicopter operations , marine assault ships of various designs , catapult ships , WWII escort carrier s , merchant aircraft carrier s , CAM ship s , nor seaplane carriers and tenders . The timeline is mainly divided into decades , the exceptions being the two World Wars and the interwar period , which are each treated as separate blocks . For the purposes of this list , the First World War is considered to have started on 28 June 1914 and ended 11 November 1918 , while the Second World War is considered to have started on 1 September 1939 and ended 14 August 1945 .