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History | |
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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 |
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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 |
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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.