LEGO Ship Model Preview #2- USS Ranger

Shown above is our second preview model for LEGO shipbuilding day at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum (February 2, 10am to 5pm). This particular model is USS Ranger (CV-4), a pre-war aircraft carrier built by Newport News Shipbuilding in the 1930s. USS Ranger has the distinction of being the first US Navy ship built specifically to be an aircraft carrier. Previous carriers Langley, Lexington, and Saratoga were all converted from hulls of other ships.

At a 16,500-ton displacement, Ranger was significantly smaller than some of the previous carriers. But designers still believed she could carry upwards of one hundred aircraft and serve as a squadron flagship. Before World War II, she spent much of her time in Latin and South America. In 1940, she served in the "Neutrality Patrol," an operation meant to keep German commerce raiders on the eastern side of the Atlantic. Once the United States officially entered the war in 1941, Ranger was deemed too vulnerable to serve in the high intensity naval aviation operations in the Pacific. She did, however, provide valuable service in the Atlantic with the 1942 invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch), anti-shipping raids off the coast of Norway in 1943 (Operation Leader), and as an aircraft transport for the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Read more about Ranger in Robert J. Cressman's USS Ranger: The Navy's First Flattop from Keel to Mast, 1934-46.

And remember.... When: Saturday, February 2, 2013 Time: 10am to 5pm Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus) Cost: FREE!