Why is the Island(bridge) on an aircraft carrier on the Starboard(right) side and not the Port(left) Side?
I only though of this the other day and wondered why the carrier's Island(bridge) is on the right and not the left side of the ship? The first carriers didn't have a Bridge or Island, so who decided it was going to be on the right side, and not the left?
And another is why is the landing area angled to the left and not the right? Almost everything in the Military is right side oriented, so why not have the landing deck angle to the right and the bridge on the left?
The first aircraft carriers with islands were HMS Glorious and HMS Courageous, both converted from cruisers. The decision to place the islands on the starboard side was probably due to the routing of the stokehold fan intakes and the boiler uptakes. Ship's engine, boiler and gear rooms are rarely symmetrical about the longitudinal centreline.
The fliers of the Royal Naval Air Service would have trained and practised take-offs and landings on these two ships and would therefore have been used to the island to starboard configuration. This is an obvious reason for the following carriers of the Royal Navy to be similar.
When the USS Lexington was designed, she followed the same example. During the First World War many US citizens flew French and British military combat aircraft well before the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies in 1917. Some would have trained with the French and British before and after the US entry and those with carrier experience would also be familiar with carriers having starboard side islands and would have been the nucleus of the burgeoning US Naval Wing.
The design of aircraft carriers until after the Second World War incorporated aircraft lifts (elevators) accessing the below deck hangars located on the carriers' longitudinal centreline which meant that they were on the flight path. The angled deck was developed to enable flying-off to continue while at the same time the forward centreline lift could bring more aircraft up and be stored forward of the island to the right of the angled deck. As it is always advantageous to fly-off into the wind with the carrier going ahead, the siting of the island makes it obligatory for the deck to be angled from starboard to port. The angled deck presents a shorter take off run of course, but the invention of the steam catapult made it viable. The background knowledge and patents for the angled deck and steam catapult were made available by the Royal Navy to the United States Navy both as members of NATO and as what Winston Churchill described as members of 'The English Speaking Alliance'.
Source(s):
Jane's Warships
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