Aircraft carrier deck material?
 

Was talking to my dad about the Yorktown, CV10, not the WW2 one.. Thought I am curious about that one too.. He was on the yorktown in SC (museum) and said the deck was wood.. I do remember some being wood at least some parts.. But this is a more of a modern carrier, with a catapult and all..

So I googled the hell out of it, but cannot find information..
Anyone got a good link?

THANKS

The wood was eliminated due to several factors. Maintanance was high and it could cause grevious injurys from 'shrapnel' in explosions.

I imagine modern decks are steel with some kind of coating applied though I dont know exactly what is used.

This is about the best I could find on the topic.

http://www.dt.navy.mil/sur-str-mat/f...coa/index.html

Anyhow more of a friendly bump than help :D

I'm sure someone who actually knows or has walked on one will chime in.

CV10 is a WW2 carrier. It is the second Essex Class (she was to be Bon Homme Richard, but was renamed Yorktown after the first Yorktown was sunk at Midway.).

The angled flight deck was added later, after the war.

WWII US and I think UK carriers had cats. IIRC the TBF Avenger needed them when it had a full payload.

The old Langley CV1 had a cat but it was removed at some point.

I think the old cats used cordite charges like the cats on surface warships (CAs and BBs etc.)

The deck is steel with a non-skid coating.

The Essex-class? I'm quite certain the deck was made of wood, unless they rebuilt it later...

They would have had to when they started operating jet aircraft.

Ah, right, forgot about that.

The first steel deck carriers in the US Navy were the Midway class, which just missed WW2. The change from wood to steel happened due to the experiences of Kamikaze attacks against British and American carriers. American carriers hit on the deck, were heavily damaged and unable to continue flight operations. They then had to return to a major port for repairs.

The British carriers had steel decks, this made for less room for aircraft and a hotter environment to work in, but when hit on the deck, they were able to resume flight operations after clearing the deck of debris.

Yes, the US Navy were quite envious of the RN steel decks, especially once kamikazes were about.

The RN oted for steel from the start because British carriers were expected to operate within the range of enemy land-based bombers e.g. the Med. This policy paid off when they moved to the Pacific as well.

Another point of view would be here:
http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-030.htm

Lustys steel deck didn't do her much good when the Stukas came knocking. She spent the next year out of commission, first in Malta, then after being bombed again, then in Alexandria and then in the States. I think one Stukas bomb demolished the deck and then another went through the hole and exploded on the hangar deck below.

IIRC there were also steel 'curtains' on the hangar deck which were supposed to stop burning debris from being showered around the deck but when the bomb exploded it just turned the curtains into flying shards of metal which decapitated at least one crew member.

Yep. People also forget that USN doctrine had the planes on deck most of the time. Yeah, it was a PITA to constantly respot them, but the RN and IJN readied and warmed up their planes down in the hanger, and that didn't work out too well at Midway, did it? ;)

The use of wooden decks on US carriers was also due to a fundamental difference in belief about the best placement of the strength deck. Americans preferred to have the strength deck be the hangar deck which allowed for greater overhead hangar height and a much larger air wing, whereas the British preferred the flight deck as the strength deck, which made for a smaller hangar deck and room for fewer aircraft, but allowed for the flight deck to take more damage before being put out of action.

They removed the steel curtains after this happened and replaced them with fire screens that wouldn't have this issue