General Site Organization
The Carrier Project is divided into several major sections, each of which may be further subdivided. This page will describe the major sections and generally explain how to navigate between them.
Time Periods
The history of American aircraft carrier development can be divided into several time periods; the organization of this site reflects these periods. These are fairly arbitrary, but are derived from the time periods that are used on the U. S. Navy's
"The Carriers" page. The periods used here are:
- The Birth of American Naval Aviation - Early Carriers: 1921-1941
This was a period of experimentation. It begins with the commissioning of the first U.S. carrier, CV-1 USS Langley, and ends with the beginning of World War II. During this time, the Navy learned about the carrier; how to operate it, how to deploy it and it's aircraft, how to defend it.
- The World at War - World War II: 1941-1945
War has a tendency to spur technological and procedural development. So it was with the carrier in the Second World War. Mass production techniques were used to build vast fleets of aircraft carriers, and the aircraft that flew from them. Tactics were modified or created to best employ the advantages of naval aviation, and these in turn required technological advances which were incorporated into the new ships.
- The Coming of the Jet Age - Post-war to Vietnam: 1945-1960
Advances in aircraft design - particularly the jet engine - demanded corresponding changes in the ships that carried them. Carriers became larger and more versatile, taking on global responsibilities.
- The Nuclear Navy - Modern Carriers: 1960-Present
Once again, technological development resulted in new requirements for the aircraft carrier. In this case, it was the self-contained nuclear reactor, small enough to be placed aboard naval vessels. This virtually inexhaustible power source gave the ships greater range and endurance than before, increasing their capabilities.
- The Marines Have Landed - Amphibious Assault Ships
Not a time period per se, but a matter of strategy and tactics that required specialised aircraft carriers to take on a specific mission - delivering a fully armed and mission-capable Marine combat unit to a designated position.
Ships are assigned to one of these periods based on the date that the first ship of the class is commissioned as a carrier.
In addition, there are two other groups of pages on this site.
- General History
These pages present information that is not specific to a given time period. This would include the origins of carrier names and information about other ships mentioned on the site.
- Site Information
Information about the site itself. This page, for example, or the Table of Contents and References.
Color Codes
To help the visitor identify the various sections of
The Carrier Project, each section (described above) uses a unique set of colors to help identify the pages. These colors are used as backgrounds for section headers, in image frames and in other highlighted areas. The basic background color is light gray, as used on this page.
Some pages, such as the
Carriers in the Space Age page, may have their own, unique, color arrangements.
The tables immediately below explain the colors, and show examples of those used in each section.
| Subject or Section Name |
Default background color for Level 1. This is the color that will appear if the gradient graphics do not load. |
Gradient for level 1. |
| This block will describe the color choices used for this section. |
Default background color for Level 2 |
Gradient for level 2. |
| Default background color for Level 3 |
Gradient for level 3. |
| Pre-carrier, pre-steam sailing ships |
|
|
| There are no sections devoted to old sailing ships, but they are occasionally mentioned in notes or in the Other Ships section. The antique white, representing the color of the sails of the old windjammers, will be used as a solid-color highlight background in those areas; there is no accompanying gradient. This color is also used to highlight dates before the age of steam, circa 1895. |
|
|
| Pre-carrier steam-powered ships |
|
|
| Like the sailing ships mentioned above, there are no sections devoted to non-carrier steamships. Where they are mentioned, the background color used will be dark (level 1) gray. This color will also be used to highlight dates between 1895 and 1921. |
|
|
| The Birth of American Naval Aviation - Early Carriers: 1921-1941 |
Level 1 |
|
| This first period of carrier development is represented by shades of brown and tan, which evoke the sand of a beach, where the land changes into the sea. Likewise, this period marked the beginning of the transition of the Navy from a dependence on the big-gun battleline to the use of long-range aviation. |
Level 2 |
|
| Level 3 |
|
| The World at War - World War II: 1941-1945 |
Level 1 |
|
| Red being the traditional color of danger, it is only natural to use this color in the section dealing with the Second World War, the largest and most destructive conflict in history. |
Level 2 |
|
| Level 3 |
|
| The Jet Age - Post-war to Vietnam: 1945-1960 |
Level 1 |
|
| Jet engines gave naval aviation greater speed, altitude and range. The light blue colors stand for the Navy's new area of operations, the sky. |
Level 2 |
|
| Level 3 |
|
| The Nuclear Navy - Modern Carriers: 1960-Present |
Level 1 |
|
| Radiation warning signs are printed in purple and yellow, so purple was chosen as the highlight color for the modern, nuclear-powered Navy (yellow was a bit too garish). |
Level 2 |
|
| Level 3 |
|
| The Marines Have Landed - Amphibious Assault Ships |
Level 1 |
There is no image for this level |
| Instead of gradients, the three patterns represent the three primary uniform colors used by ground troops: Olive drab in World War II, basic woodland camouflage introduced in Vietnam, and the current MARPAT digital camouflage pattern. The colors of the camouflage patterns have been lightened slightly so that the text will be readable. The solid colors are olive drab, camouflage green and swamp green, respectively. |
Level 2 |
|
| Level 3 |
|
| General Information & History |
Level 1 |
|
| General information, such as technical data; and non-time-specific history, such as the origins of ship names. |
Level 2 |
|
| Level 3 |
|
| Site Information |
Level 1 |
|
| Data specific to the website itself, such as the site history and reference pages, or, for that matter, this page. |
Level 2 |
|
| Level 3 |
|
Other Colors Used |
| Occasionally, other colors are used, usually for special highlights or if additional contrast is needed. |
| Black |
Steel Gray |
White |
| Gold |
Lime green |
Yellow |
Layered Format
Due to the amount and nature of the information presented,
The Carrier Project employs a heirarchal, or "layered", structure. This means that pages with general information lead to other pages containing additional information, which, in turn, may lead further to pages with even more detail. This concept is illustrated below, using two sections of the site as examples:
| General Information |
Birth of Naval Aviation |
References |
| Additional Information |
Lexington-class carriers |
Print References |
| Detailed Information |
CV-2 USS Lexington |
Author's names: A |
Breadcrumbs
To help the user keep track of her location within the site, "breadcrumbs", in the form of link buttons, may be provided above the left side of the title bar of each page, as shown in this example drawn from the Print References page on authors with names beginning with the letter A:
This example shows that the page immediately "above" the 'Authors - A' page is the 'Print Sources' page, with the 'References' page above that.
The breadcrumbs will allow the user to "back out" of the current page and return to the higher-level pages of the section.
On rare occasions, a page may be part of two or more sections of the site. In this case, multiple lines of breadcrumbs will be provided, or the second group will be moved to the right:
CV-21 USS Boxer
CV-21 USS Boxer
If no breadcrumbs appear above the title bar, the page is either a top-level ("general information") page or a stand-alone page.
