The Hornet Aircraft Carrier (WWII to the space program) with Laura Fies

The USS Hornet was an Essex-class aircraft carrier originally named USS Kearsarge, but was renamed in honor of the prior USS Hornet, which was lost 10/1942, becoming the eighth ship to bear the name. Completed in 1943, the ship participated in the Pacific War & the Vietnam War, as well as recovering Apollo 11 & Apollo 12. The presentation starts with early aircraft carriers.
On 18 January 1911, a plane flown by Eugene Ely from the Tanforan airfield in San Bruno, CA landed on a platform constructed on the afterdeck of the USS Pennsylvania (model in the museum). This was the first successful aircraft landing on a ship, and the first using a tailhook apparatus, thus opening the era of naval aviation and aircraft carriers.
The presentation then covers some WWII technology, and ends with some relics of the space program on the ship that is now a museum in Alameda, CA.