Main article: Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier Summary of the I classĢ shafts, 2 steam turbines, 20 kn (37 km/h 23 mph) The never-finished Ausonia was broken up for scrap in 1922. Without any conversion work having been done, the plan was abandoned. What shipyard capacity that was available was devoted to building U-boats for the commerce raiding campaign. Construction priorities in the last year of the war, however, meant that the ship would never be completed. That same year, the Navy decided to convert the passenger ship Ausonia, then under construction, into a flush-deck aircraft carrier. A major step forward came in 1918, when the light cruiser Stuttgart was converted into a dedicated seaplane tender. The first planned aircraft carrier came about in 1918, late in World War I the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) had previously experimented with seaplanes operated from ships such as the armored cruiser Friedrich Carl. Main article: German aircraft carrier I (1915) The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated During this second period of construction, the Kriegsmarine proposed to convert several passenger ships and two unfinished cruisers into auxiliary aircraft carriers, though none of these were completed either, and by 1945 all had either been sunk or seized as war prizes by the Allied powers. Work on Graf Zeppelin recommenced in 1942, but was again stopped in early 1943 due to more pressing requirements. Despite this, neither of the Graf Zeppelin-class ships would be completed due to the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 work was halted on both in early 1940, and Flugzeugträger B was scrapped shortly thereafter. A second vessel, designated Flugzeugträger B, followed in 1938, and the Plan Z naval expansion plan envisioned a further two carriers of a new design to be in service by 1945. Starting in the mid-1930s, the Reichsmarine began design studies for a new type of aircraft carrier to meet the requirements of the revitalized German fleet by 1936, these concepts had developed into the Graf Zeppelin class, the first member of which was laid down for the renamed Kriegsmarine in December of that year. The project could not be completed before the war ended in November, however, as resources could not be diverted from the U-boat campaign. These ships did not meet the needs of the High Seas Fleet, however, and so a more ambitious plan to convert the unfinished passenger liner SS Ausonia into an aircraft carrier was proposed in early 1918. ![]() Among these were the light cruiser SMS Stuttgart, which was converted to carry three seaplanes, and the armored cruiser Roon, which was to have carried four. These ships were based on knowledge gained during experimentation with seaplane tenders operated by the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I. The German navies-the Kaiserliche Marine, the Reichsmarine, and the Kriegsmarine-all planned to build aircraft carriers, though none would ever enter service. Graf Zeppelin, the only German aircraft carrier to be launched
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