Intro…

The aircraft carrier during World War II proved air power trumped capital ships. Just 19 years after the Wright Brothers first flight the USS Langley was commissioned the Navies first aircraft carrier.

The DVD…

This DVD has 336 images and 2 PDF files. The PDF files alone are worth getting this DVD. They are plan booklets for CVL26, USS Monterey and CV-3 USS Saratoga. The Monterey booklet is 17 pages of cross sections, elevation, plan views, and detail views. The Saratoga booklet is 19 pages of the same information. If any of you are lucky enough to have a printer that can print a 4’ long print, you will be in heaven. I did one of the Saratoga’s elevations views. SWEET! Big BZ to ray for adding these on the disc.

OH yeah, there are also the 300 images provided on the disc covering the CV’s and CVL’s of the fleet. But first there are other nice little extras on the DVD as well. First there is a chart with the tail codes for the US Carriers during the war. There is also another nice image provided. It is another chart with all the USN ships from 1939-45 in profile. This gives a person a good comparison of different classes of ships in relation to one another.

The pictures on the disc are once again top quality images not normally found in your typical references. There are close up of islands, gun mounts, catwalks, elevators, and etc from the different ships/classes covered. There are also pre-war, early war, mid war, and late war pictures of the Ranger, Sara, and Big E. Different line drawings of these ships show their progression during the war. There are also some nice views of the CLV’s and once again many shots of those areas the modeler needs to see.

Impressions…

With the new CVL kit available and the popularity of US carriers in general this is a must have DVD. Like I had mentioned the PDF booklets of Sara and Monterey are well worth the cost of the disc. Then add in the extra 300 images and you just cannot go wrong. All of the images are high resolution for the time period shot. Some of these when view are full magnification are blurry. Remember these were shot on film during the 1930’s and 40’s. I found looking at them at ½ size provided plenty of detail.