Description
The Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carriers followed the Forrestal-class and would
become the last conventionally-powered aircraft carrier class in US Navy
service. Commissioned in 1961, the USS Kitty Hawk and USS Constellation were the
first two in service before a pause in construction followed to build the USS
Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The last two Kitty
Hawk-class members followed - USS America commissioned in 1965 and USS John F.
Kennedy in 1967.
Kitty Hawk has a long and distinguished career which ranged from combat
operations off of Vietnam, to stunt-double for USS Nimitz in the movie 'Final
Countdown', to submarine hunter with the collision with Victor-class K-314, to
the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier to be home-ported in Japan.
Throughout its service, the Kitty Hawk was kept up-to-date with the latest
systems. Before she was retired, the USS Kitty Hawk was the second longest
serving warship in US Navy history (USS Constitution 'Old Ironsides' remains the
oldest).
Here is a classic kit from Academy, this is the 1/800th scale USS Kitty Hawk
which is one of Academy's earlier releases. Given that the company was founded
in 1969, it makes sense that they'd produce the 'latest' aircraft carrier in
their line-up and the kit's subtitle states that the USS Kitty Hawk is the
world's largest aircraft carrier which was true at that time. This tooling has
been released by other companies as well representing the other members of the
Kitty Hawk class. While 1/800 might seem an odd scale now, this kit was designed
before standardized ship scales were agreed upon. Even at 1/800 scale, the
completed model is over 15 inches long. I'm told that this kit remains one of
the top sellers in the US market simply because it is an easy kit with lots of
nice details.
The kit is molded in gray styrene and presented on five parts trees plus the
hull and flight deck and one tree of black parts containing the display stand.
Among the features and options in this kit:
One-piece full hull
Movable elevators
Simplified details on island and rear mast
The impressive bit of this kit is the extensive air wing which includes:
-
10 x F-14 Tomcat -
6 x F-4 Phantom II -
8 x F/A-18 Hornet -
12 x A-7 Corsair II -
6 x A-6 Intruder -
2 x EA-6B Prowler -
2 x RA-5C Vigilante -
2 x E-2 Hawkeye -
4 x S-3 Viking -
2 x SH-3 Seaking
