USS Kitty Hawk (AKV-1)

History
United States
Name	USS Kitty Hawk
Namesake	Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Builder	Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania
Laid down	1932, as SS Seatrain New York
Launched	14 September 1932
Acquired	25 June 1941
Commissioned	26 November 1941 as APV-1 (Transport and Aircraft Ferry)
Decommissioned	24 January 1946
Renamed	Kitty Hawk, 8 July 1941
Reclassified	AKV-1 (Aircraft Transport), 15 September 1943
Stricken	24 January 1946
Identification	IMO number: 5316911
Fate	Returned to owner, 24 January 1946 Scrapped 1973
General characteristics
Type	Aircraft transport
Displacement	16,480 long tons (16,740 t) full load
Length	478 ft (146 m)
Beam	63 ft 6 in (19.35 m)
Draft	26 ft 4 in (8.03 m)
Installed power	8,800 shp (6,600 kW)
Propulsion	1 × Geared steam turbine 1 × shaft
Speed	17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h)
Complement	245 officers and enlisted
Armament	1 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal gun, 4 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal guns, 4 × 40 mm guns (2x2), 24 × 20 mm AA cannons (8x2, 16x1)
Aircraft carried	Ferried a variety of aircraft, mainly fighter types

USS Kitty Hawk (APV-1/AKV-1), formerly SS Seatrain New York, was a cargo ship that was converted into an aircraft transport during World War II.

Seatrain New York was built in 1932 by Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Corporation of Chester, Pennsylvania for Seatrain Lines, Inc. She was acquired by the United States Navy on 25 June 1941, and renamed Kitty Hawk on 8 July. She was named after Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where the Wright brothers made the world's first powered heavier than air flight on 17 December 1903. She was converted to an aircraft transport by Tietjin & Land Dry Dock Corporation, Hoboken, New Jersey and commissioned on 26 November 1941, at New York Navy Yard.