Japanese aircraft carrier Hosho

Career	RN Ensign
Builder:	Asano Dock, Yokosuka
Laid down:	16 December 1919
Launched:	13 November 1921
Commissioned:	27 December 1922
Decommissioned:	June 1946
Fate:	Dismantled in 1947
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 × 140 mm / 50 caliber guns(1 × 4) 2 × 80 mm / 40 caliber AA guns(1 × 2) 2 machine guns
Aircraft:	26

This page refers to the Japanese aircraft carrier. For the African instrument, see Hosho (instrument)

Hosho (Japanese: é³³ç¿", meaning "flying phoenix") was the first aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and while not the first aircraft carrier, it was the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier in the world to be commissioned. The hull was still based on a cruiser design, but it was not a conversion. Hosho was commissioned in on 27 December 1922, thirteen months before the Royal Navy's first purpose-built carrier Hermes, which was designed before Hosho. (See aircraft carrier for more on the type's history).

Being the first of its kind in the navy, Hosho was actively used to develop the aircraft carrier operational methods and tactics of the Japanese Navy during the 1920s.

Its 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.

It served during the Shanghai Incident (bombing of Shanghai on January 28 1932) and Sino-Japanese War in 1937.

By the beginning of World War II, Hosho had been superseded by other models: It was too small and too slow to accommodate the newest types of carrier planes such as the Mitsubishi Zero.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 its flight deck, but the overhang weakened her stability and ocean-going capability. It was relegated to training duty in Japan's inland sea after 1943.

After the war, it was used as a transport to repatriate Japanese personnel from abroad until June 1946, before being dismantled in 1947. Hosho was one of four carriers of the Japanese Navy to survive the war, but would be scrapped in 1947.

Hosho air group:
*1932: 9 fighters A1N1 (Type 3), 3 bombers B1M2 (Type 13), 3 reconnaissance aircraft C1M (Type 10) (15 aircraft)
*1937: 9 fighters A4N1 (Type 95), 6 bombers B3Y1 (Type 92) (15)
*1941: 11 fighters A5M4 'Claude', 8 bombers B4Y1 'Jean' (19)
*1942: 8 bombers B5N2 'Kate' (8)

External links

*Naval Historical Center Images of the Hosho