This vivid volume describes the fascinating history of aircraft carriers, first deployed successfully in World War I by the Imperial Russian Navy, and indispensable to the Allied victory in World War II, now the strategic centerpiece of the world’s most powerful navies. * Eighty photographs of all the important aircraft carriers from before World War I to the present, including many operated by lesser-known navies * A reference section providing essential physical details, basic design information, modifications, and brief service histories for 80 aircraft carriers or classes from 1912 to the present