An illustration proposes converting an Essex-class carrier into an Atlas-rocket launch ship. The attraction is a mobile platform able to launch at sea. The suggestion then prompts a playful counterfactual: an American conversion might have encouraged a Soviet equivalent. The imagined competition is a sea-launch race, rather than a claim that such an Essex conversion entered service.
Notable Point · 56:57-58:10
An Essex-class carrier as a sea-launch platform
An illustrated proposal turns an Essex-class carrier into a mobile Atlas-rocket launch platform and prompts a speculative American-Soviet sea-launch race.