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* [[Battle Angel Alita]]

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[[Category: Wikipedia sockpuppets of Panairjdde|Panairjdde]]

=Italian aircraft carrier Aquila=

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width=300 style="margin-left:1em;margin-bottom:1em"

|-

|colspan="2" align="center"|[[Image:RNAquila_profile.jpg|300px|''Aquila'' profile]]

|-

!style="color: white; height: 30px; background:navy;"|Career

!style="background:navy;align:right;"|[[Image:RMensign30.jpg|Kingdom of Italy]]

|-

|Ordered:||[[1941]]

|-

|Laid down:||[[1941]]

|-

|Launched:||-

|-

|Commissioned:||-

|-

|Decommissioned:||-

|-

|Fate:||Scrapped

|-

|Struck:||[[1952]]

|-

!colspan="2" style="color: white; height: 30px; background:navy;"|General Characteristics

|-

|Displacement:||23,500 tons standard,

27,800 tons full load

|-

|Length:||235,5 m

|-

|Beam:||30 m

|-

|Draught:||7.3 m

|-

|Propulsion:||8 boilers, 4 turbines, 4 shafts, 151,000 HP

|-

|Speed:||30 knots (54 km/h)

|-

|Range:||5,500 miles at 18 knots

|-

|Complement:||1,420 (107 officers)

|-

|Armament:||8 135/45 mm,

12 65/64 mm,

132 20/65 mm

|-

|Aircraft:||51

|-

|Protection:||max 80 mm (deck)

|}

'''''Aquila''''' (Italian for ''Eagle'') was an [[Italy|Italian]] [[aircraft carrier]] designed and built during the [[World War II]]. It was a modification of the liner ''Roma''. The conversion started in [[1941]]; at the time of the Italian armistice ([[8 September]] [[1943]]), the conversion was almost complete, but the ship was never delivered to [[Regia Marina]]. It was scrapped in [[1952]].

==Italian aircraft carriers==

''Aquila'' is considered the first aircraft carrier built for the [[Italian Navy]], and the only one before the future ''[[Italian aircraft carrier Conte di Cavour|Conte di Cavour]]''. However, Regia Marina had already tested the capabilities of ships with improved air capabilities, just after the [[World War I]]. In [[1923]], the auxiliary carrier ''Giuseppe Miraglia'' was launched, but the experiment was soon abandoned.

The role of the aircraft carriers was undervaluated by the Regia Marina, as well as by other navies, up until 1940; furthermore, the Regia Marina was to operate in the narrow Mediterranean sea, close to Italian air bases. These considerations led to the position, held by Italian High commands, that there was no need for aircraft carriers, since "''Italy itself is an aircraft carrier layed over Mediterranean''", as [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]] once said.

According to the plans developed, the fleet air coverage would have been responsability directly of the [[Regia Aeronautica]]; Regia Marina was to request, case by case, air coverage to Regia Aeronautica, which would fulfill these requests once provided to her own necessities. The end result of this `collaboration' was that several times the fleet fought without air coverage, or that the Italian aircraft arrived late to the battle area, or, even, that Italian aircrafts attacked Italian ships (as during the [[battle of Calabria]]).

When the necessity for an air component travelling with the fleet was clear, it was decided to convert two ocean liners: ''Roma'' was to be transformed into ''Aquila'', a fleet carrier, while ''Augustus'' was to become the escort carrier ''Sparviero''.

==''Aquila'' design==

[[Image:RNAquila.jpg|thumb|250px|left|[[La Spezia]], 1951: ''Aquila'' just before demolition]]''Aquila'' was obtained through the conversion of the kneel of the ocean liner ''Roma''; since a ''[[Italian battleship Roma|Roma]]'' battleship was already under construction, the name of the ship was changed to ''Aquila''. The propulsion section was obtained combining two motor compounds built for two [[light cruisers]] of the ''[[Capitani Romani cruiser class|Capitani Romani]]'' cruisers that had been dropped in [[1941]] (''Cornelio Silla'' and ''Paolo Emilio''). She had a single, continuous flight deck 211.6 x 25.2 m wide at 23 m on the sea, with 2 German-built Demag catapults. The big isle, containing the command tower, was on the right side of the flight deck. ''Aquila'' was designed to carry 51 [[Reggiane Re.2001]] fighters: 10 on the flight deck, 26 in the hangar, and 15 hanging from the hangar ceiling (Italian air force had no foldable-wing airplanes).

''Aquila'' was a quick response to the problem ''Supermarina'' (Italian Navy High Command) faced during the first years of the war in the Mediterranean: the otherwise powerful Regia Marina had no aircraft carriers, the air coverage of the [[Regia Aeronautica]] was useless at best, and the Italian warships faced many battles against the Royal Navy without an air component travelling with them, such in the ''[[Battle of Taranto|night of Taranto]]'' and in the [[battle of Cape Matapan]]. Her role would have been of fleet defense, and, therefore, her hangar would have been filled with fighters or fighter-bombers

''Aquila'' would have been a good aircraft carrier, and a better conversion even than the Japanese Junyo; her major points were her good speed (30 knots), her average attack capability (equivalent to the Japanese ''[[Japanese aircraft carrier Taiho|Tahio]]''), and the protection of the flight deck. Her major drawback was an operational one: even if capable to finish her before the end of the war, the Reagia Marina would have had the problem of training the pilots to fight on an aircraft.

==''Aquila'' fate==

Liner ''Roma'' conversion started in [[Genoa]], at ''Cantieri Ansaldo'', at half 1941. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, when the ship was complete at 90% and had already passed the first statical test. Germans took possession of the ship and started demolishing it. The ship was damaged during some allied air attacks on Genoa. Since it was possible that the Germans would have used the big kneel to block the entrance to Genoa port, ''Aquila'' was partially scuttled by Italian frogmen. After the war, ''Aquila'' was brought to [[La Spezia]], where she was scrapped in 1951-52.

[[Category:Italian Navy|Vittorio Veneto]]

[[Category:Italian ships|Vittorio Veneto]]