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| Career
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| Builder:
| Asano Dock, Yokosuka
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| Laid down:
| 16 December 1919
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| Launched:
| 13 November 1921
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| Commissioned:
| 27 December 1922
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| Decommissioned:
| June 1946
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| Fate:
| Dismantled in 1947
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| General Characteristics
|
| Displacement:
| 7,470 t standard;
9,330 t trial;
10,500 t full load
|
| Length:
| 168 m LOA
|
| Beam:
| 18.0 m
|
| Draught:
| 6.17 m
|
| Propulsion:
| 2-shaft geared turbine, 12 boilers, 30,000 hp (22 MW)
|
| Fuel:
| Oil 2695 t, coal 940 t
|
| Speed:
| 25 knots (46 km/h)
|
| Complement:
| 550
|
| Armament:
| 4 x 140 mm /50cal.guns(1x4)
2 x 80 mm /40cal.AA-guns(1x2)
2 machine guns
|
| Aircraft:
| 26
|
Hosho (Japanese: 鳳翔, meaning "flying phoenix") was the first aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier in the world to be completed. Hosho was commissioned in on 27 December 1922, seven months before the Royal Navy's first purpose-built carrier Hermes (several navies had previously converted other ships to carriers; see aircraft carrier for the full history).
Being the first of her kind, the Hosho was actively used to develop the aircraft carrier operational methods and tactics of the Japanese Navy during the 1920s.
Her design was originally based on a cruiser-style hull, a flight deck with a depressed fore-part to accelerate lift-off, a starboard island, and three starboard funnels that were reclinable during flight operations. After trials she was improved by removing the island and flattening the flight deck, giving her a flush-deck design.
She served during the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
By the beginning of World War II, Hosho had been superseded by other models: she was too small and too slow to accommodate the newest types of carrier planes such as the Mitsubishi Zero. She saw action however during the battle of Midway in June 1942, offering modest air support to the main fleet.
Efforts were made to lengthen and widen her flight deck, but the overhang weakened her stability and ocean-going capability. She was relegated to training duty in Japan's inland sea after 1943.
After the war, she was used as a transport to repatriate Japanese personnel from abroad until June 1946, before being dismantled in 1947. Hosho was the only aircraft carrier of Japanese Navy to survive the war.
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