USS Jupiter (AC-3)

USS Langley underway, 1927
History
United States
Name:	Jupiter (1912–1920) Langley (1920–1942)
Namesake:	Jupiter Samuel Pierpont Langley
Builder:	Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Cost:	$1,326,111.36 (Jupiter Hull and Machinery) $395,992.80 (Repairs, changes and alterations as of 1919)
Laid down:	18 October 1911
Launched:	14 August 1912
Commissioned:	7 April 1913
Decommissioned:	24 March 1920
Commissioned:	20 March 1922
Decommissioned:	25 October 1936
Commissioned:	21 April 1937
Renamed:	Langley, 21 April 1920
Reclassified:	Fleet aircraft carrier, 21 April 1920 Seaplane tender, 21 April 1937
Struck:	8 May 1942
Identification:	Hull symbol: AC-3 Hull symbol: CV-1 Hull symbol: AV-3
Nickname(s):	"Covered Wagon"
Honors and awards:	As Jupiter: Mexican Service Medal / World War I Victory Medal ("Transport" clasp) As Langley: American Defense Service Medal ("Fleet" clasp) / Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal / World War II Victory Medal (posthumously)
Fate:	Scuttled, 27 February 1942
Badge:
Class overview
Name:	Langley-class aircraft carrier
Operators:	United States Navy
Preceded by:	N/A
Succeeded by:	Lexington class
Built:	1920 (converted to an aircraft carrier) 1936 (converted to a seaplane tender)
In commission:	1922–1936 (as an aircraft carrier) 1937–1942 (as a Seaplane tender)
Planned:	2
Completed:	1
Lost:	1
General characteristics
Class and type:	Proteus-class collier Langley-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	19,360 long tons (19,670 t) (as Jupiter) 12,700 long tons (12,900 t) (standard, as Langley) 13,900 long tons (14,100 t) (full load, as Langley)
Length:	542 ft (165.2 m)
Beam:	65 ft 5 in (19.9 m)
Draft:	27 ft 8 in (8.4 m) (as Jupiter) 24 ft (7.3 m) (as Langley)
Installed power:	3 × boilers 7,200 shp (5,400 kW)
Propulsion:	General Electric turbo-electric transmission 2 × shafts
Speed:	15.5 kn (17.8 mph; 28.7 km/h)
Range:	3,500 nmi (4,000 mi; 6,500 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement:	163 officers and men (as Jupiter) 468 officers and men (as Langley)
Armament:	4 × 4 in (102 mm)/50 cal guns (as Jupiter) 4 × 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal guns (as Langley)
Aircraft carried:	None (as Jupiter) 36 (as Langley)
Aviation facilities:	1 × elevator 1 × catapult

USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (AC-3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built Lexington-class battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga. Langley was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion, to a seaplane tender, Langley fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.

President William H. Taft attended the ceremony when Jupiter's keel was laid down on 18 October 1911 at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. She was launched on 14 August 1912 sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Ruhm; and commissioned on 7 April 1913 under Commander Joseph M. Reeves. Her sister ships were Cyclops, which disappeared without a trace in World War I, Proteus, and Nereus, which disappeared on the same route as Cyclops in World War II.