Ranger

USS Ranger was the first American ship designed and built as an aircraft carrier. The technical specifications called for an aircraft carrier with a smooth deck (no superstructure was planned initially), a speed of 32 knots, and a displacement of no more than 18,000 tons. USS Ranger carried an air group that was only slightly inferior in number to the air groups of her larger predecessors. Ranger continued her service until the end of the war in the Atlantic. She escorted the first Arctic convoys from America to Iceland and was subsequently used as an aircraft transport, facilitating the deployment of army units landing in Africa.