Aircraft carriers in fiction

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Aircraft carriers are the most prominent modern capital ship and appear in many fictional works.

An Aircraft Carrier in the game Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. The design is based on one early concept for the US Navy's CVNX program.
An Aircraft Carrier in the game Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. The design is based on one early concept for the US Navy's CVNX program.

Contents

[edit] Films

[edit] Novels

  • Stephen Coonts started his Jake Grafton series of aircraft carrier novels with Flight of the Intruder in 1986. Set in the Vietnam war, it was made into a movie starring Danny Glover and Willem Dafoe in 1991.
  • In Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham a battle group centred on a supercarrier called the USS Hillary Clinton is thrown from the year 2021 to 1942. Fans have argued over whether the novel is satirical, given Birmingham's background as a humorist.
  • Patrick Robinson's first Arnold Morgan novel was named Nimitz Class in which the antagonist destroys a Nimitz Class Carrier and much of her battle group with a submarine launched nuclear torpedo.
  • Gordon Kent is the pseudonym for a father-and-son team of ex-naval aircrew who have written five novels mixing naval aviation and intelligence themes.

[edit] TV Show

  • The 1995-96 television show Space: Above and Beyond featured a fictional USS Saratoga in 2063. She was a John F. Kennedy class carrier in the series. This class of vessel had a designation of SCVN or Space Carrier Vehicle Nuclear.
  • Supercarrier was a 1988 eight-episode TV series.
  • The title ship of Battlestar Galactica and the current reimagining feature large spaceborne Battlestars which carry several squadrons of Vipers and several Raptors. The Vipers launch from and land into winged hangar pods positioned on the sides of the ship.
  • The anime series Mobile Suit Gundam and its various alterante universes frequently feature Mobile Suit Carriers, space ships that are functionally equivalent to the modern day aircraft carrier. Often, but not always, they play a pivital role in the story, usually by housing the main character and his friends. Also, in one instance, a conventional Nimitz Class carrier appears in Gundam Wing.
  • In the anime RahXephon, the main carrier Lydia Litvyak (named after the female Soviet ace) is used to launch fighter planes and other aircraft.
  • Many of the capital ships in the sci-fi show Babylon 5 function as both battleships and carriers, equipped with both heavy ship-to-ship weaponry and the ability to launch multiple squadrons of fighters and bombers. Examples include the Minbari 'Sharlin' class war cruiser and the Earth Alliance 'Omega' class destroyer.
  • The anime The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982-1983) features a space supercarrier, only this time launching Variable fighters that transform into giant robots.
  • The anime Neon Genesis Evangelion shows an aircraft carrier the episode ASUKA STRIKES!, one of the Eva mechs using it as a platform to fight against an underwater enemy from.
  • Aircraft carriers appeared frequently in the opening credits and numerous episodes of the military crime drama JAG and its' spin-off NCIS, often with fictional names.

[edit] Video Games

  • The Wing Commander series of computer games and novels takes place on spaceborne aircraft carriers in the 27th century, with the player character being a fighter pilot flying strike missions against alien opponents in an World War II-like interstellar war. Many of the carriers in the game are named for 20th century carriers; examples include Lexington, Saratoga, Intrepid, and Midway.
  • The Descent: FreeSpace computer game and its successor, FreeSpace 2, feature Battleship-Carrier hybrids that, in FreeSpace 1, seem not to have any armament at all to some players.
  • In the computer game Starlancer, both the Eastern Coalition and the Western Alliance utilise large and powerful space-based strike carriers as their Ships of the line, the largest of which being the ANS Yamato (a reference to the Japanese battleship Yamato, one of the largest battleships ever built). These vessels are primarily used to launch fighters and torpedo bombers into long-range combat, but they are also heavily armoured and armed with large flak turrets, nuclear torpedoes and laser turrets, making them highly effective in close-range combat.
  • In the computer game Star Wars: TIE Fighter, the player spends most of the game flying various fighter craft off of Star Destroyers, which function as both aircraft carrier and battleship, sometimes working in support groups. Other Star Wars games and books indicate that many classes of Imperial Star Destroyers, as well as Rebel Mon Calamari Cruisers double as battleships and aircraft carriers, the latter carrying X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, and B-Wings.
  • Carrier Command is a computer game for the Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC and PC platforms, simulating an aircraft carrier with remote-controlled aircraft and amphibious vehicles.
  • In the RTS game Empire Earth, on the Digital-Nano Ages there is an futuristic aircraft carrier named USS Nexus.
  • In Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, a PC game developed by Rage Software, the player takes direct control of a high-tech supercarrier which can create and animate autonomous vehicles. The story and dialog of the game were written by noted comic book author Warren Ellis.
  • In the Star Wars universe the Old Republic fielded the Venator-Class Star Destroyer during the Clone Wars. It doubled as both a carrier and a battleship, and was said to be able to carry over 420 starfighters into battle.
  • In the computer game StarCraft, the Carriers are the capital ships of the Protoss faction. They attack by launching tiny robotic interceptors against their targets. They often operate in large groups, particularly when in a multiplayer game with Protoss players. Naturally, a large group of them are intimidating enough to convince inexperienced players into quitting the game. However, like carriers of real life, the Protoss Carrier's primary weakness is that they lacked weapons of their own, making them vulnerable when players learned to directly attack them rather than their interceptors.
  • In Ace Combat 5 and its prequel Ace Combat Zero the aircraft carrier Kestrel plays an integral part of many missions. In Ace Combat 5 it is hit and sunk by a submarine launched missile.
  • In Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere, the fictional company Neucom has a twin-hulled flattop carrier, while General Resources Ltd.'s carriers are identical to the Nimitz-class.
  • In the computer games Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, and Homeworld 2 space based carriers are used as auxiliary command ships if the Mothership is destroyed.
  • In The King of Fighters videogame series, the nuclear arms dealer Rugal Bernstien lives on an aircraft carrier named the Blacknoah.
  • In Jane's Fleet Command game you are given command of various Carrier Battle Groups and tasked to complete certain missions. The success of these missions generally revolves around the player's ability to manage both the carrier aircraft weapons and the surface warship components.
  • In Battlefield 2142 both factions use massive floating carrier ships known as "titans" to transport troops, ships, and supply to battle.
  • In the X-series of videogames by Egosoft, each race has a carrier that is used to launch and recover fighters
  • The video game Star Fox Command features a new version of the Great Fox with an appearance strongly reminiscent of a spacefaring aircraft carrier.
  • Several aircraft carriers can be seen docked around Prison Island in Sonic Adventure 2, one of them shown being destroyed when the island is destroyed by bombs planted by Shadow the Hedgehog. The flight deck of one of these ships also serves as a fighting arena in the game's multiplayer mode.

[edit] Comics

  • In the Marvel Universe, the intelligence organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. has its headquarters as an aerial carrier type called the Helicarrier.
  • In the manga version of Akira, an aircraft carrier heads the American fleet as they sail near the ruined Neo-Tokyo. Tetsuo Shima temporarily "becomes" the carrier during his attack on the fleet and fires missiles (the missile turrets seem to run on their own under his control). Tetsuo later destroys the carrier by sending the American laser satellite FLOYD crashing down on top of it.
  • In issues #130 through #133 of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, Dr. Robotnik is shown operating an aircraft carrier armed with nuclear missiles which he threatens to fire, prompting the title character and his comrades to launch an assault that results in the carrier's destruction.
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