Midway Class Aircraft Carrier Summary

This is a 3D printed sculpt of the USS Midway Class Aircraft Carrier by HBG.

The Midway class aircraft carriers were the final US carriers produced during WW2 and were intended to operate in the Pacific. The first two ships were commissioned about the time of the Japanese surrender.

The design was originally conceived in 1940 and was to include an armored flight deck. As the designed progressed through the war years, it was heavily influenced by the experience of the Royal Navy's armored carriers.

The extra armor protection was expected to reduce the aircraft capacity by 40%, but after some creative design changes and extensive arc-welding which reduced weight by 10%, an Essex-class equivalent capacity of 90-100 aircraft could be achieved. Ultimately, the final design produced a very large ship, with the ability to accommodate more planes than any other carrier (30–40 more aircraft than the Essex class).

Airwing size was important. US planners found during war games that the larger the carrier airwing, the more likely the ship was to survive in combat - a salient characteristic no other navy learned. The Midway continued the design trend of ever larger capacity.

While the resulting ships featured excellent protection and unprecedented airwing size, they also had several undesirable characteristics. Internally, the ships were very cramped and crowded. Freeboard was unusually low for such large carriers and would take on large amounts of water in rough seas. The ships corkscrewed in a manner that hampered landing operations. And due to the wide beam the Midway-class carriers could not pass through the Panama Canal.

The basic design, with many of its flaws resolved in various upgrades, was good enough that two ships of this class were in operational service for over 40 years. The Midway is now a museum ship and is the most visited ship in the world.

Ships of Class:

• CV-41 Midway
• CV-42 Franklin D. Roosevelt
• CV-43 Coral Sea

Note: Sculpts of this class are identical.

Each carrier comes with a unique, historically accurate flight deck decal and two strong neodymium rare earth magnets to hold two aircraft. Never have your airwing fall off a carrier again!




The optional damage marker by makes a great game addition. 



Approximate dimensions (LWH): 67mm x 12 mm x 11mm

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"Great" J Tucker - Sunday, January 31, 2021