Historian Talk: USS Langley, the Navy's First Aircraft Carrier

Join author and historian Dr. David Winkler, PhD, Commander, USN (Ret) as he tells the story of the USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3), an experimental ship meant to launch and recover land planes, and which became the Navy’s first aircraft carrier. Commissioned in 1913 as the collier USS Jupiter, Langley initially served as the Navy’s sole operational carrier, serving in concert with USS Lexington, Saratoga, and Ranger. Langley then served as an airplane tender servicing long-range patrol bombers before it was lost in February 1942 due to enemy air action south of Java. Through two decades, Langley also played a prominent role in the biographical narratives of pioneers in naval aviation, such as William F. Moffett, Joseph M. Reeves, John H. Towers, Patrick N.L. Bellinger, and Marc A. Mitscher.

About the Speaker: David F. Winkler served for many years as the staff historian at the Naval Historical Foundation. He currently co-compiles Tuesday Tidings with the National Maritime Historical Society and serves as Assistant Historian General for the Naval Order of the United States. He is also an Adjunct Professor with the Naval War College, teaching the Strategy and War Curriculum at the Washington Navy Yard. In 2022, recognition of his collaborative efforts to promote educational outreach with like-minded organizations, he received the prestigious National Maritime Historical Society Distinguished Service Award. Prior to his appointment to serve as 2020 - 2021 Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to research the history of USS Langley, Winkler was appointed as the United States Naval Academy’s Class of 1957 Chair of Naval Heritage for the 2019 - 2020 academic year. Winkler received his PhD in history from American University. Recalled to active duty in 1998 to write a history of the Navy in the Persian Gulf, Winkler subsequently published Amirs, Admirals, and Desert Sailors (Naval Institute Press, 2007) and Tribute to a Generation: Haydn Williams and the Building of the World War II Memorial (Naval Institute Press, 2000). His recently published new book is called, Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin.

Host or Publisher National Museum of the United States Navy