| |
HMS Furious
**Sold**
42 1/2” x 17” x 5”
I have explored early aircraft carrier designs before—the USS Langley, among them. I didn’t realize that there was an even earlier iteration in the development of Aircraft Carriers, before any assumptions about basic take-offs and landings were made and those assumptions became commonplace.
The HMS Furious represents this half-complete nugget, in the same way that early cars still looked like carriages minus the horse. Landing? Well, the first landing—which did, in fact, occur on August 2, 1917—was carried out by the pilot maneuvering his Sopwith Pup around the superstructure of the light cruiser and landing on a miniscule deck that had been crafted above the original cruiser main deck.
It wasn’t until 1922 that the superstructure was removed and a full-length flight deck was fitted to the ship, establishing what now seems an ordinary and obvious concept.
*(plus CA sales tax and shipping ) |
