That change gave it a weight and balance problem that dogged the ship all its life. Fox notes in "Always Good Ships: Histories of Newport News Ships," the Navy backtracked during construction, adding an island superstructure on the Ranger's starboard side. Still, as naval architect and historian William A. It also incorporated such innovative features as a flush flight deck with no island and six side-mounted folding smokestacks, not to mention the crucial introduction of the open hangar deck. It also reflected the Navy's early struggle to determine the best size for this new kind of warship - and its willingness to experiment in order to come up with the right answer.Īt only 769 feet long and 15,758 tons in displacement, the Ranger was a $15.2-million gamble on smaller, more efficiently designed aircraft carriers that could carry nearly the same number of aircraft as the larger and earlier USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, which had been converted from cruisers.
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