Ship Modelers Database
USS Yorktown (CV-10)
Museum Ship
USS Yorktown (CV-10) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built for the US Navy during World War II. Originally laid down as Bonhomme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while under construction to honor the carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway.
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Resources
+ Submit a resourceHistory & specifications
- NavSource: Aircraft Carrier Photo Index - USS Yorktown (CV-10)Website
Detailed photo index with specifications, modernization dates, and dozens of captioned wartime and postwar photos useful for modeling reference.
- Wikipedia: Patriots Point Naval & Maritime MuseumWebsite
Describes the museum where Yorktown is preserved, including recent conservation/restoration work on the ship.
- Wikipedia: USS Yorktown (CV-10)Website
Comprehensive overview of the ship's construction, WWII and Cold War service history, and her current status as a museum ship.
History
Specifications
As built she displaced roughly 27,000 tons; after her 1950s SCB-27A and SCB-125 modernizations she reached about 33,100 tons standard and around 40,600 tons full load, with dimensions around 820 x 101 x 31 feet at full load after the SCB-125 angled-deck conversion. She carried deck-edge and centerline elevators and hydraulic catapults, with a crew (ship's company plus air wing) of roughly 2,600 to 2,900.
Service history
Commissioned in April 1943, Yorktown fought in major Pacific campaigns of World War II, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation before being decommissioned in 1947. Recommissioned in 1953 as an attack carrier (CVA-10) after the SCB-27A modernization, she later received an angled flight deck under SCB-125 and was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS-10) in 1957, serving off Vietnam and earning five more battle stars. She was decommissioned for the last time in 1970 and towed to Patriots Point, South Carolina, in 1975 to become a museum ship, where she was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Notable facts
Yorktown served as the primary recovery ship for the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968, the first crewed flight to orbit the Moon, hauling the capsule and astronauts aboard after splashdown. She was also used as a stand-in for a Japanese carrier in the 1970 film "Tora! Tora! Tora!", with her crew dressed to resemble WWII Japanese sailors and her deck markings altered to mimic a straight-deck carrier. She was the first aircraft carrier ever converted into a museum ship, and today serves as the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.