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CV-4 Ranger Aircraft Carrier

Product Details

CV-4 Ranger Aircraft Carrier
CV-RANGER-EM-P
Product Options
USN Flight Deck*

Deck Insignia - US Carriers*

Hull Camouflage*

USN Aircraft 1

USN Aircraft 2

Damage Marker
$29.99 inc. tax

$29.99 ex. tax
? Tax based on California, United States.

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Units in Stock: 4

CV-4 Ranger Aircraft Carrier Summary

This is the 3D print sculpt of the USS Ranger by EBard Models.

Construction began on the USS Ranger (CV-4) in 1931, and was the only ship of her class. As a Treaty ship, Ranger was the first U.S. vessel to be designed and built from the keel up as a carrier. She was relatively small, just 730 ft (222.5 m) long and under 15,000 long tons (15,000 t), closer in size and displacement to the first US carrier—Langley—than later ships. An island superstructure was not included in the original design, but was added after completion.

Work began in 1925 on the design of a fourth aircraft carrier for the US Navy, as a follow-on to the Langley and the larger Lexington and Saratoga. Preliminary design work occurred before extensive operational leasons were learned from the preceding three. Therefore, key characteristics of the design were derived from wargaming experience at the U.S. Naval War College. Many alterations were made during design and construction to incorporate experience from operation use of the Langley, Lexington, and Saratoga.

The major limitation constraining the Ranger design was the Washington Naval Treaty of 1920. After Lexington and Saratoga, there were 69,000 long tons (70,000 t) remaining for construction of aircraft carriers. This resulted in modeling for three 23,000 long ton carriers, four 17,250 ton carriers, and five 13,800 ton carriers. Of the three sizes, the smaller 13,800 was selected because the five hulls would have the largest aggregate aircraft capacity. Wargames had indicated that severe attrition to airframes and hulls would occur in future wars so quantity was preferable. The carrier operated 76 aircraft as constructed, basically equal to the Lexington class with half the displacement.

Initially, Ranger was designed with a flush like Langley, with nothing extending above the flight deck. Keeping the flightdeck clear of obstacles complicated the arrangement of machinery. The smoke from her six boilers was vented up six small stacks, with three on each side of the aft hangar. The stacks were hinged and were rotated to a position parallel with the hangar deck during flight operations. The unusual stack arrangement is a carry-over from her flush-deck design. When an island was added midway through construction, rebuilding the uptakes into the island was rejected as too costly.

When war broke out, Ranger was deemed too slow for use with the Pacific Fleet's carrier task forces, and spent most of the war in the Atlantic Ocean. Ranger provided air support for Operation Torch and in October 1943, fought in Operation Leader, and conducted air attacks on German shipping off Norway.

In January 1944, Ranger became a training carrier and was sold for scrap in 1947.

Choose your flight deck option. The Ranger comes with hull camouflage when the deck blue flight deck is chosen (as shown). If the pre-war walnut stain flight deck is selected, no hull camouflage is applied.

Each carrier comes with two strong neodymium rare earth magnets to hold two aircraft. Never have your airwing fall off a carrier again! Purchase a loaded carrier and get a discount on magnetized aircraft.