Design
The Forrestal-class aircraft carriers were designed in the early 1950s as a smaller version of the cancelled United States class "Supercarriers". Unlike the United States class, they were to operate in both the nuclear strike and conventional roles, and were therefore intended to carry a mixed fleet of fighters, light attack and heavy attack aircraft, all of which were to be jets. The carriers were designed around the large new Douglas A3D Skywarrior bomber, with four deck-edge aircraft elevators large enough to handle the new bomber. As jet aircraft needed much more fuel than piston-engined aircraft, the Forrestal-class had a much greater aviation fuel capacity than existing carriers, with 750,000 US gallons (2,800,000 l) of Avgas and 789,000 US gallons (2,990,000 l) of jetfuel, more than double that carried in the Midway class aircraft carriers.
Independence was built with an angled flight deck with four C-7 steam catapults, two on the bow and two on the angled deck. It was fitted with AN/SPS-37 long-range search radar and AN/SPS-8B height finding radar. Defensive armament consisted of eight 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 guns mounted on sponsons jutting out from the sides of the ship so they did not interfere with the flight deck. The initial air wing of the Forrestal-class carriers was about 90 aircraft, although this varied with the composition of the airwing.
Read more about this topic: USS Independence (CV-62)
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—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)
“The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.”
—Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)