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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 97452:  USS Monterey (CVL-26) underway in the Gulf of Mexico, 29 January 1953

Online Library of Selected Images:
U.S. NAVY SHIPS -- Listed by Hull Number

CVL -- Small Aircraft Carriers

On 15 July 1943, the Navy reclassified the nine aircraft carriers of the CV-22 class as Small Aircraft Carriers, with the designator CVL. Hull numbers remained as originally assigned in the CV series. Five of these ships (CV-22 through CV-26) had already entered service under the CV designation, but the other four commissioned as CVL. Two more small aircraft carriers (CVL-48 and CVL-49) were built under the Fiscal Year 1944 program, giving a total of eleven ships that served under the CVL designation. One of these was lost during World War II, one was disposed of following the war and two were loaned to France in the early 1950s. The surviving seven ships were reclassified as Auxiliary Aircraft Transports (AVT) on 15 May 1959. The CVL designation formally passed out of use when the two French ships were returned to the U.S. in the early 1960s and sold for scrapping.

This page provides the hull numbers of all U.S. Navy aircraft carriers numbered in the CVL series and provides links to photos of these ships.


See the list below to locate photographs of individual small aircraft carriers (CVL).


Small Aircraft Carriers numbered in the CVL series:


To the best of our knowledge, the pictures provided in the "Online Library of Selected Images" are all in the Public Domain, and can therefore be freely downloaded and used for any purpose.

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 7 May 2002
Information added 19 August 2002